The global financial crisis has already deeply influenced many business fields in China. Telecom industry reported negative growth rate recently. Only 3,22 million new mobile phone subscribers registered in October, 2008, lower than the average monthly increase of 8,5 million records from January to September, claimed by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). Of course, the change in CDMA network (China Unicom changed to China Telecom) has affected, somehow, the method of collecting the figure of users of CDMA, but the down trend in handset markets is very noticeable.
Beijing plans to issue 3G licenses as early as next month in order to boost China’s slowing economy. Sure, after the 4 trillion RMB stimulus plan, this 3G news does not make bigger market excitement. This time, 3G license “seems” to be really put on the schedule.
“With the global economic situation, if China could award 3G licences faster, it could boost the Chinese and global economies,” commented by Chang Xiaobing, China Unicom chairman, in industry conference in Macao on November 25, 2008.
The government also expects China Mobile to provide 3G services with the Chinese TD-SCDMA standard rather than the more widely used European and US standards. Recently on Asia Mobile Congress, Nokia claimed again its support to TD-SCDMA. Nokia plans to launch S60 platform based TD-SCDMA mobile phones by the end of 2009.