China, the world's biggest mobile phone market, is keeping the telecoms industry guessing about when it will pick a technology for third-generation service amid questions about cost and effectiveness.
Put off partly by controversy in Europe over 3G, regulators are wary of letting China's phone companies invest in technology that they worry could soon be obsolete.
The delay is a disappointment for suppliers who thought Beijing was poised to create huge opportunities to replace and upgrade equipment for 250 million Chinese customers.
"Originally I thought that a decision would be made before the end of this year," said Irwin Jacobs, chief executive of US supplier Qualcomm, Inc. "It's clear that will now go into next year."
Regulators are weighing whether to let its four major operators pick their own technology or to make that choice for them, Jacobs said during a recent visit to Beijing.
Third-generation networks are expected to offer faster delivery of data and pictures. But operators across Europe have slowed the launch of 3G amid questions about demand for the services and delays in the arrival of phones.
China is testing competing systems known by such arcane names as CDMA2000 and Wideband CDMA. Complicating matters further, Beijing is trying to develop its own standard -- known as TD-SCDMA -- so that it won't have to pay for foreign technology.
Suppliers say despite tests showing that 3G can be integrated into China's existing network, regulators aren't sure devices based on that standard are ready or worth the money.
Regulators are uneasy about controversy in Europe and elsewhere over auctions of 3G licenses, with some operators complaining about their cost or conditions.
"The auction process [in Europe] should have promoted 3G, but it complicated some factors and actually stopped the growth of 3G," said Wen Ku, an official of China's telecommunications regulator, the Ministry of Information Industry.
"Due to the overall economic slowdown, 3G development has also been adversely affected," he said.
Suppliers insist their technology is ready to go. And they say the numbers of subscribers abroad signing up for 3G services show that the investment is justified.
Jacobs of Qualcomm said he expected China to release a report on 3G radio frequencies in September next year. But he said regulators might announce a choice before then.
China's timing could be influenced by the introduction of 3G in Japan and Europe, said the chief executive of another supplier, Frank Dunn of Nortel Networks.
"In China," Dunn said, "they will be closely monitoring the developments in Asia as well as western Europe."
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS