China Mobile Upgrades GSM in Preparation for TD-SCDMA
China Business News, 11/07/08
At a Guangdong 3G Industry Alliance forum held yesterday, a spokesperson for China Mobile's (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) TD-SCDMA project revealed that the company will invest RMB 110 bln to upgrade its GSM networks in preparation for TD-SCDMA. China Mobile is currently testing whether it can upgrade its GSM network to act as the core network for TD-SCDMA technology.
At the same forum, Wu Ping, CEO of Chinese wireless baseband chipset provider Spreadtrum (Nasdaq: SPRD) mentioned that Spreadtrum has made investments in TD-SCDMA technology for the last five years, and to date has seen virtually zero return on its investment. He claims that the greatest problem is the lack of clear industry development.
A manager at TD-SCDMA solution provider Datang Mobile stated that China Mobile originally intended to move forward with TD-SCDMA terminal procurement in November, but to date there has been no news on that matter. Taiwanese fabless semiconductor firm MediaTek consequently has a storehouse with several hundred thousand TD-SCDMA chips.
Editor's Note: China Mobile plans to have both its GSM and TD-SCDMA networks share the same service management, support, and core systems. For more background, please see "China Mobile Listed Company to Operate TD-SCDMA", MD 9/02/08 issue.
Previous rumor also had it that China Mobile planned to invest RMB 100 bln for GSM construction. For more background, please see "Rumor: China Mobile to Invest RMB 100 bln in GSM Network", MD 7/14/08 issue.
Keywords: network construction 0941.HK 3G China Mobile CHL Datang Mobile GSM MediaTek procurement SPRD Spreadtrum TD-SCDMA upgrade wireless Wu Ping
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