China's government hasn't decided on a timetable for issuing high-speed cellphone service licenses, a government minister said.
"We're aware that from time to time, there are some people or companies talking about when we're going to give the licenses," said Xi Guohua (奚國華), Vice Minister of Information Industry (MII), in an interview in Hainan Island yesterday. "The government hasn't made a final decision on that."
Last month, China's National Business Daily reported the nation may issue 3G licenses at 20 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion) each to China Mobile Ltd (
The MII will submit a final proposal on so-called third generation services sometime this year to the State Council, the country's highest governing body, Chen Jinqiao, a director of telecommunication policy at the ministry, said on March 2 in Beijing.
"On the final choice, we'll be neutral and that will be a purely commercial business decision," Xi said.
China had 334.8 million cellphone subscribers at the end of December, according to government statistics.
The Eurovision Song Contest has seen a surge in punter interest at the bookmakers, becoming a major betting event, experts said ahead of last night’s giant glamfest in Basel. “Eurovision has quietly become one of the biggest betting events of the year,” said Tomi Huttunen, senior manager of the Online Computer Finland (OCS) betting and casino platform. Betting sites have long been used to gauge which way voters might be leaning ahead of the world’s biggest televised live music event. However, bookmakers highlight a huge increase in engagement in recent years — and this year in particular. “We’ve already passed 2023’s total activity and
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Pegatron Corp (和碩), an iPhone assembler for Apple Inc, is to spend NT$5.64 billion (US$186.82 million) to acquire HTC Corp’s (宏達電) factories in Taoyuan and invest NT$578.57 million in its India subsidiary to expand manufacturing capacity, after its board approved the plans on Wednesday. The Taoyuan factories would expand production of consumer electronics, and communication and computing devices, while the India investment would boost production of communications devices and possibly automotive electronics later, a Pegatron official told the Taipei Times by telephone yesterday. Pegatron expects to complete the Taoyuan factory transaction in the third quarter, said the official, who declined to be
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