Unicom "testing" WiMax in 21 provinces

China Tech News picks up the rumor in Chinese media that China Unicom, the country's second largest mobile telecom provider, is testing the WiMax technology in 21 provinces.

China Unicom is also said to have compiled a feasibility report on the WiMax network. However, the reports say that the work on WiMax will be stopped for a while in the coming days, for China Unicom needs to consider a suitable business pattern to run the network. There is still no word on when full roll-out of the service will begin.

One thing is certain: 21 provinces stands for almost half the country, so we are talking about a pretty huge test, if the rumor proves to be true. The story comes as the number one mobile provider China Mobile is "testing" the Chinese standard for 3G ahead of the official licensing. Such a head start for China Mobile, in figures already the largest telecom provider in the world, would put the remaining Chinese telco's in a disadvantaged position. Obvious, China Unicom would need a strategy like this to survive in the longer run.
WiMax is a wireless technology that is mainly pushed by Intel, but has not yet been deployed on a large scale. Base station can cover huge areas - compared to WiFi or traditional mobile solutions - and are therefore easier to deploy. They can provide real broadband connectivity for a fairly low price.

China Mobile: barrier or enabler?

Mobile browsing the internet was on the agenda of the Shanghai Mobile Monday meeting tonight in a rather packed Kathleen's 5. Obvious still 90 percent of the mobile phone users has never done it, so the digital vanguard was eager to convince this rather easy audience.
Ding Gang from Widsets, Jack Wong, representing OpenWave and Pierre-Andre Divisia who was representing Opera, painted this rosy picture of happy consumers finding everything they wanted on their mobile phone in open networks. More than once the name of China Mobile was mentioned, the world's largest telecom operator, by the audience as a possible barrier to mobile happiness for the consumer. In the past this quasi-monopolist had effectively been squeezing out both service and content providers and is not seen as the most friendly giant in the industry.
Remarkably enough, one of their representatives was present and moderator Bruno Bensaid was able to get him in the discussion. Not that he could actually said that much, but it improved the sense of accountability that is often lacking in China. The representatives of Microsoft were much more silent than this state-owned Moloch and that is telling.
The nice words of the panelists for China Mobile could easily be mistaken for professional politeness for a major force they are dependent on. But also more independent participants said that China Mobile is changing and it might be much more an enabler of internet browsing than a barrier, who wants to push only its own services.

Still no progress on the 3G development

China's two weeks of formal decision making are over and still no word on the licenses for the third generation mobile communication, 3G. Business Weeks goes so far to suggest that what seemed a clear winner, China's own standard TD-SCDMA, is because of the ongoing delays has turned into a sure loser.

So even when TD-SCDMA is finally ready, Chinese telecom operators are unlikely to embrace it. Chances are at least one of the state-owned operators will have no choice but to use it, but as a consolation prize they will also be allowed to operate the more popular and proven global standards.

A lot of political prestige has been connected to this project. While China is doing economically very well, developing its own standards has been high on the agenda, but met with very little success. When the TD-SCDMA is going to be a receipt for disaster, we might see some political consequences too.

Shi Jixing

China Mobile official breaks ranks on 3G policy

In a remarkable interview with the Financial Times, China Mobile vice-Chairman Shi Jixing has slammed the government's dealing with the third generation mobile communication, 3G. Shi is also member of the NPC.
China's government has been delaying the decision making on issuing the 3G-licenses process over the past few years, not only causing desperation among the potential foreign investors, but also among the key Chinese players.

Beijing was missing an opportunity for 3G networks – which allow the use of data-intensive services such as video on mobile handsets – to become a telecoms powerhouse, said Mr Shi, who is also a member of China’s National People’s Congress.
Policy, he said, was deadlocked between the Ministry of Information Industry, the Nat­ional Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), a state assets commission, and the State Council’s “informatisation” office.
“There are unclear responsibilities and low efficiency,” he said. “This means the excellent strategic opportunity presented by 3G is not being grasped in time.”

China has been working hard to get its own Chinese standard TD-SCDMA out in China to give the technology a head start. For government officials like Mr. Shi - he is still more an official than a business man - it is very uncommon to criticize the government publicly.