China telecom industry reshuffle

China telecom industry reshuffle

China' s telecom industry is at the dawn of deep reshuffle to add competition, streamline execution and address clashing interests for telcos. The move will be done before the issue of 3G mobile licenses, so is imminent. What is at stake? Today, the mobile market is mainly split between two operators (China Mobile and China Unicom) and it is not a mystery that China Telecom and China Netcom (the two fixed-line operators with fixed wireless access (PAS)) are considering also offering mobile services. The next big step will be granting 3G licenses; who will be chosen, will survive or die? China's vice Minister of Information Industry, Xi Guohua, announced that China Unicom will not be split up as forecast, but for doing what?

Operation will also be modified. As part of the policy to combat mobile phone-related crimes and restrict the SMS spamming in the country, China has made registration mandatory for pre-paid consumers.

Up to now, the Chinese government has been very cautious in announcing measures and timing, but it seems that things are accelerating. The increasing maturity of the home-made TD-SCDMA 3G standard allows now Xi Guohua to say:” The opportune moment has come for a strategic decision on the awarding of 3G mobile licenses”, while the Minister of Information Industry, Wang Xudong, said "After years of hard work, our country now possesses the conditions for 3G development".

We will see in 2006.