Licensing biggest challenge for China's 3G sector - Nokia China President
Poland Business Newswire
Beijing July 7
The current lack of 3G licenses is at this stage the largest challenge for players in China's 3G sector, David Ho, President of Nokia China, told Interfax Thursday.
"The lack of licenses is so far the biggest challenge," Ho said.
At present, TD-SCDMA, WCDMA, and CDMA 2000 are the three potential 3G standards to be adopted in China. However, as the Chinese-developed TD- SCDMA standard is yet to be proven in commercial use, the Chinese government has halted issuing 3G licenses to further support the Chinese standard.
"Discussions (on 3G) have been centered too much on technical network standards, but no one cares about the opinions of 3G users and the user experience. I don't think this is the right direction," Ho said.
Nokia, as a strong WCDMA player, has been lobbying the Chinese government to speed up the 3G licensing process in a bid to quickly snatch up market share in the world's largest mobile communication market. However, it still remains uncertain as to when the Chinese government will start the issuance of 3G licenses.
In addition to WCDMA, Nokia has also begun to increase its investment in the Chinese TD-SCDMA 3G standard.
In May of 2006, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economy planning body, approved establishment of a 3G joint venture between Nokia and state-owned China Putian, allowing the new venture to develop and produce TD-SCDMA base stations. Production is scheduled to take place in the second half of 2006.
Total investment in the Wuhan-based joint venture is RMB 900 mln (USD 112.5 mln), with Nokia holding 49% of the shares and Putian the remaining 51%. The joint venture will have a term of 15 years, with a registered capital of RMB 300 mln (USD 37.5 mln).
Additionally, the merger between Nokia's Networks Business Group and the carrier-related operations of Siemens last month also strengthened Nokia's position in the TD-SCDMA standard. This is because Siemens is one of the key TD-SCDMA developers and runs TD-Tech, a TD-SCDMA joint venture with China's Huawei Technologies.
"After the merger, we have become the largest [foreign investor in TD- SCDMA]," Ho said.
Ho, meanwhile, still believes that WCDMA will have advantages over other 3G standards, for instance, in handset supply.
"There are already many WCDMA handset models available, but the number of models on other standards has been a lot less," Ho said.
In addition, Ho remains doubtful on the future of multi-mode 3G handsets that can access different 3G networks on one single terminal.
"Multi-mode handsets will be more expensive. Besides, you will have to develop specific applications, which will require further investment.
Therefore, if the output is not big enough, multi-mode handsets will have a difficult road to success," Ho said.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
