Mobile News From China

As Hutchinson struggles to meet its 3G targets in the UK, the mobile business seems to continue to advance by leaps and bounds in China. Keep your eyes on the various 'proto 3G' versions of CDMA in the third world, this could be important, we could even see some 3W countries leapfrogging Europe here:

Chinese are expected to send up to 200 billion text messages this year. China could wind up accounting for roughly half all short message services (SMS) globally. Last year, mobile phone users worldwide sent off a total of 360 billion messages. The increased SMS traffic would be good news for mobile operators, who could expect revenues of 15 billion yuan (US$1.8 billion) even if the total number of Chinese messages this year was limited to 150 billion. Apart from allowing for instantaneous exchanging of messages, SMS can also be used to deliver information on demand, such as news, sports results, and weather information.

China Mobile announced its first quarterly decline in net profit, warning of limited growth and intensifying competition in the mainland mobile phone sector. Second-quarter net profit fell 5.4 per cent to 8.5 billion yuan (US$1.0 billion). Revenue was up just 3.6 per cent quarter on quarter to 39 billion yuan (US$4.7 billion). Half-year earnings increased 13.1 per cent year on year to 17.5 billion yuan (US$2.1 billion). Although in line with analyst expectations, earnings were boosted by the acquisition of eight provincial networks in July last year. On a pro-forma basis, the world's largest mobile-phone operator recorded profit growth of just 3.5 per cent.

Siemens Mobile has completed the first trial of China's own version of third-generation (3G) technology - TD-SCDMA - with network operators China Mobile and China Railcom. Siemens tested the technology in May with good results. Deployment is expected as early as next year. To speed up the development process, Siemens hoped to soon unveil another TD-SCDMA partnership in the mainland. The company is also co-operating with Datang Telecom Technology.
Source: Finance Asia
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