China fast-tracks 3G licences push

THE Chinese government has announced plans to distribute 3G licences as early as this year. It plans to approve licences for TD-SCDMA, an original communications standard developed in China, as well as the WCDMA system used by Vodafone and cdma2000 standard, most common in Japan.

The approval is expected to trigger a total of more than £5.7bn in capital spending to develop the required infrastructure. The move will mean a windfall for communications equipment manufacturers as they clamour to supply the world's largest mobile phone market.

Four firms are in the running for the licences. Besides existing cellphone service providers China Mobile and China Unicom, two fixed-line carriers - China Telecommunications and China Netcom - are also expected to be included to stimulate competition and promote lower prices. Licensees will choose from one of the three standards. The Chinese market caters to more than 200 million cellphone users.