China Mobile, CBC Hold CMMB Launch Ceremony
DVBCN, 3/23/10
China Mobile (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) and the China Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) held a ceremony in Beijing yesterday marking the official commercial launch of CMMB mobile phone TV service. China Mobile CEO Wang Jianzhou said that the two companies' cooperation had begun with the 2008 Beijing Olympics. According to China Mobile, following the official commercial launch of CMMB mobile television services, a total of 845,000 CMMB-enabled handsets have been sold, and this year the total number of handset models that support CMMB will reach 67.
China Mobile and CBC are currently offering the service at a promotional price of RMB 6/month. However, details of the two sides' profit sharing agreement have not been released.
CMMB service has been launched throughout 27 provinces and 303 cities at the prefecture level and higher.
Editor's Note: CCIDNet reported that the RMB 6 promotional price would also include an initial month of free trial service, and that the ceremony marked the official launch of China Mobile's Mobile Broadcast Business Management System (MBBMS), which handles billing, user management and conditional access for the CMMB service through China Mobile.
Reports are also unclear on the source of the 845,000 handset sales figure, and as China Mobile officially launched commercial CMMB service yesterday, it is unclear what time period the figure refers to. Also unclear is whether or not the figure refers to TD-SCDMA+CMMB handsets, or any handset with CMMB functionality.
Keywords: wireless sales volume Wang Jianzhou China Mobile handset television CMMB MBBMS mobile phone TV CHL TD-SCDMA 0941.HK China Broadcasting Corporation tariffs revenue share