No Definite Time Set for the Release of 3G License

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, December 05, 2002

No Definite Time Set for the Release of 3G License

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On the afternoon of Dec.3, 2002 at the press conference held in Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center Wu Jichuan, Minister of the Ministry of Information Industry made an introduction about the present development situation of China's information industry when he was attending "Asia Telecom Exhibition 2002" in Hong Kong, and at the time he also answered some questions much concerned by overseas reporters.

When China is going to release the license for 3G mobile phone is not decided by the government policy, said Wu Jichuan but by the maturity of the 3G business. He pointed out emphatically that for several years, many places of the world have got serious lessons in the development of 3G mobile phone, the crucial matter lying in whether the 3G business can be accepted by the broad masses of users. The policy of the Ministry of Information Industry for the 3G at present is to follow closely the development of the 3G technology and at the same time to cultivate the market in an active attitude. When the market and consumers are there the Ministry of Information Industry will give an active support to it.

Speaking of the technological standard for the 3G, Wu Jichuan pointed out, the International Tel-communication Union has already made it definite that it falls into WCDMA, CDMA2000 and TDS-CDMA three standards. However, countries and regions may make a choice of their own in line with the actual situation of their own regions. As to whichever standard can become a leading standard, Wu is of the opinion that for the moment there is no definite conclusion. It depends on the trends of the market, on the maturity of the standard as a whole and the products as well as on the acceptance of the market and the utility of the countries and regions.

From a long-term point of view, China is going to form 4 full business Telecom companies. But the Ministry of Information Industry so far hasn't decided when it is going to issue comprehensive telecom license for them to go into operation, nor has it been put onto the agenda. For the time being, there is a drafting group working on the relevant rules and regulations for the "Law of Telecommunication", pointed out Wu Jichuan. However, it's by no means an easy job to bring out the "Law of Telecommunication" and it must be submitted to the NPC and for the moment it's still "not outside the door of the Ministry yet". And so the "Law of Telecommunication" "won't be able to see the light" prior to the next March as he reckoned.

Wu Jichuan pointed out, the Information Industry has already become a No.1 pivotal industry in China's national economy. Last year saw China's GDP come to 9,000 billion yuan in people's currency. China has become a big country turning out mobile phone sets and this year's output will be nearing 100 million sets, of which 60 - 70 will be sold domestically and the rest to be exported, an increase of 16 - 17 percent.

The framework for the reform of China's telecommunication industry has at large been laid out. For the moment, China has a total of 6 basic telecom business operators and some 4000 operators providing added-value services.

China's Telecom business has introduced into it a competitive mechanism after reforms and thus sped up the development. By the end of last October, the manufacturing part of the industry has engendered an output value of RMB 1300 billion yuan and the operational revenue to reach RMB 300 billion yuan.

The previous 10 months saw the output value of the information industry products take up 25 percent of the exported mechanic-electric products, holding a key position. The major products include computers, exchangers and so on. The fixed phone users in the country have already reached 209 million in number while the mobile phone users are 198 million in all with the sum-total to have surpassed 400 million. And by the yearend the mobile phone-users will exceed that of the fixed phone-users as Wu Jichuan estimated.

By People's Daily Online

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