China Telecom Sets CDMA Targets
Economic Observer, 8/30/08
China Telecom (NYSE: CHA; 0728.HK) recently convened a nationwide meeting in the city of Ningbo, Zhejiang province, for all managers responsible for CDMA network construction, to lay out its plan for developing its mobile services.
Under China Telecom's plan, core network equipment and wireless network equipment will begin arriving on September 25 and 30, respectively. In addition, it will start operating 15 main CDMA-based value-added services from November 1.
China Telecom Group deputy GM Yang Jie said that China Telecom is requiring that in major cities, network quality be comparable to that of China Mobile (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) by 2009, and by the same time that the number of mobile subscribers reaches approximately 75 mln.
The plan also calls for upgraded CDMA network coverage in 82 regions for peak downstream speeds of 3.1 Mbps and no less than 259 Kbps in outlying regions. These speeds, if reached, would place China Telecom's service ahead of China Mobile's EDGE services
China Telecom also plans to deploy 15,000 WLAN hotspots in 2008, bringing its total to 25,000 by the end of the year.
Keywords: strategy target 0728.HK 0941.HK 2008 2009 CDMA CHA China Mobile China Telecom CHL coverage EDGE mobile subscribers network construction users wireless mobile network equipment WLAN Yang Jie telecom equipment wireless networking