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China's Huawei helps VimpelCom's Tacom launch its 2G/3G network in Tajikistan
China's Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ("HUAWEI"), a leader in providing next generation telecommunications network solutions for operators around the world, has helped Tacom, a subsidiary of VimpelCom, successfully launch its 2G/3G network in Tajikistan.
To choose the vendor for the Tajikistan network, VimpelCom organised a two process tender for all renowned global telecom network vendors. Based on a detailed analysis of proposed solution and the vendor's experience in the telecom market, Huawei was chosen as the main vendor for the project and its Softswitch recognised as the best solution for the operators requirements.
As a leading supplier of telecommunications network solutions, Huawei is the first company to successfully integrate 3GPP R4 technologies into GSM/UMTS network, and deploy unified 2G/3G core networks. On the principle of separating the control layer and bearer layer, Huaweis Mobile Softswitch solutions provides large network capacity and excellent processing performance to ensure smooth services. Its IP-based distributed architecture simplifies the network structure, speeds up network deployment, and reduces network transmission cost. This protects the telecom carriers' long-term investment and meets their requirements for rolling out new services.
"The Tacom network is VimpelComs first experience of providing commercial 3G services," said Victor Pilyugin, director general of Tacom. "We are satisfied with Huawei's advanced solutions and professional services and look to build a long-term partnership with Huawei." "We are grateful for Tacom and VimpelComs trust in Huawei", said Sun Yelin, President of Huaweis CIS Region. "We believe that the Tacom 2G/3G network will become a success story that highlights Huawei's cooperation with our strategic partner VimpelCom. Huawei will consistently provide innovative and customised products and services to create long-term value for VimpelCom." Huaweis GSM solutions serve over 120 million subscribers of world-leading operators. The company has also won over 33 UMTS/ HSDPA commercial contracts worldwide. The cooperation with Tacom further consolidates Huaweis leading position in the CIS markets.
Huawei is a leader in providing next generation telecommunications network solutions for operators around the world. The company is dedicated to providing innovative and customized products, services and solutions to create long-term value and potential growth for its customers. Huaweis products and solutions are deployed in over 100 countries and serve 28 of the worlds top 50 operators, as well as over one billion users worldwide.
VimpleCom is a leading international provider of mobile telecommunications services in Russia and Kazakhstan with newly acquired operations in Ukraine, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
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HK tycoon Li Ka-shing's trust fund in consortium buying his son's PCCW stake
The controversial sale of Hong Kong telecoms operator PCCW by businessman Richard Li will be partly bought by a consortium that includes his father Li Ka-shing's trust fund, a report has said.
Citing unnamed sources, Ming Pao Daily said Francis Leung, local financier and a long-time friend of the elder Li, has finalised the composition of the consortium which will also include Spanish telecoms giant, Telefonica SA.
The Chinese-language daily said the tycoon's trust fund will take a 9.9 percent stake in the local dominant phone operator and the other two parties, Leung and Telefonica, will hold the remaining 12.77 percent.
Leung's spokeswoman declined to comment on the report.
Through his Singapore-listed company Pacific Century Regional Developments (PCRD), Richard Li sold his 22.67 percent stake in PCCW in July for 1.17 billion US dollars to his father's long-time associate Francis Leung.
In September, PCRD said an initial 500 million Hong Kong dollars (64 million US) deposit on the sale was paid with the funds drawn on a facility provided by the elder Li, who had denied any involvement in the PCCW deal.
PCRD said the funds were provided before the negotiations on the deal began and for purposes that were unrelated to the sale.
There was speculation at the time of the sale that Richard Li was bailed out by Leung with the help of his father after his move to sell his stake in a key strategic communications asset attracted strong foreign interest.
Leung has so far declined to reveal his financial backers.
Richard Li had said he did not know his father was involved in the deal in this manner until he was informed by the Singapore Stock Exchange.
The sale of the stake in PCCW proved controversial on many counts, not least because it attracted offers worth up to seven billion US dollars from Australia's Macquarie Bank and US investment house TPG-Newbridge.
Talks with the foreign companies ended after opposition by the state-owned China Netcom, PCCW's second-largest shareholder with a 20 percent stake.
The elder Li reportedly tried to bail out Richard, who rejected his offer, for fear of hurting his extensive business relationships in mainland China.
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Telefonica may buy 8% of PCCW
Telefonica SA, Europe's second- largest phone company, reportedly may buy 8% of Hong Kong's PCCW Ltd. for about HK$3.2 billion ($411 million) to drive expansion in China.
Telefonica plans to set up a venture with China Network Communications Group to manage their combined 28 percent holding in Hong Kong's biggest fixed-line phone company. The Madrid-based company previously said it wants to increase its 5 percent stake in China Network's main operating unit, China Netcom Group Corp. (Hong Kong) Ltd.
The deal will closely align Telefonica and its partners as they seek a larger slice of the market in China, where the number of new subscribers in the past year exceeded the 82 million population of Germany. The sale would also end China's concerns that an unwanted buyer would take control of PCCW.
"To go to China on your own is crazy, you have to have a good partner,'' said Glen Spencer-Chapman, an analyst at Madrid- based Ibersecurities SA. For some companies, "it's a real nightmare because it's a very tough market.''
Telefonica is buying the holding from former Citigroup banker Francis Leung. He agreed in July to purchase more than a fifth of PCCW from a company controlled by Richard Li, son of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-shing, as a stop-gap measure while Leung sought other investors. Richard Li had been in talks to sell the stake to Macquarie Bank Ltd. and Texas Pacific Group.
China Network indicated at the time that it would block the sale to the two buyout firms.
Biggest Shareholder
Telefonica and China Network's venture will become the biggest single shareholder in PCCW.
Li Tao, a spokesman for China Network, declined to comment, as did Telefonica's Miguel Angel Garzon in Madrid.
The Li Ka-shing Foundation, a charitable body, will buy 12 percent of PCCW from Leung. Li, Asia's richest resident according to Forbes Magazine's annual list in March, already controls Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd., the territory's biggest mobile phone company.
Laura Cheung, a Hong Kong-based spokeswoman for Li Ka-shing's foundation, declined to comment.
Shareholders of Pacific Century Regional Developments Ltd., a publicly traded Singapore company that controls PCCW, must approve the sale.
Richard Li, who is selling Pacific Century Regional's 22.66 percent stake for HK$9.2 billion ($1.18 billion), will be barred by Singapore's stock exchange from voting on the deal because his father is involved in the purchase. The younger Li holds 75 percent of the Singapore company.
Related Channels: China, M&A, Investment, Wireless, IPTV

China Netcom OKs T3G’s TD-SCDMA/GSM dual-mode chipset solution through trial in Qingdao
Beijing-based T3G, the leading TD-SCDMA chipset solution provider announced that T3G’s chipset platform has passed China Netcom’s Admission Tests in the TD-SCDMA large-scale trial network in Qingdao with good results.
In the Qingdao tests, the TD-SCDMA/GSM dual mode handset solution of T3G has been widely acknowledged for its excellent air interface performance, mature multimedia applications and ultra low power saving capabilities.
TD-SCDMA/GSM dual mode handsets from international handset giants Samsung and Motorola, T3G’s primary customers, have participated in this test in the TD-SCDMA network of China Netcom in Qingdao. Later, these handsets will go through more tests in different testing environments in Xiamen and Baoding respectively.
The TD-SCDMA Large-Scale Network Application Trials started this June have been going on smoothly according to plan of the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) and handsets tests have been conducted successfully on the TD-SCDMA network covering the whole cities of Qingdao, Xiamen and Baoding.
With the implementation of the network upgrade and optimization at these test cities, TD-SCDMA handsets are undergoing more tests of the formal pre-commercial stage, which are the final step before the real commercial launch. The success of the Qingdao tests has enabled general users‘ access to the TD-SCDMA handsets.
Related Channels: China, Wireless, Chips

Chinese mobile phone maker CEC Telecom to debut IPO on NYSE
Chinese mobile phone maker CEC Telecom Co., Ltd. (CECT) is about to debut initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange to raise as much as US$300 million in 1Q07.
The main body of CECT to be listed will be the BVI (British Virgin Islands) offshore company Qiaoxing Mobile Communications Co., Ltd., which takes a 90% stake in CECT. The rest stake is in the hands of Tianjin Teda. CECT and a part of 3G R&D business will be covered in the company. But Qiaoxing mobile phone will be an exception since the business has been included in Qiaoxing Universal Telephone.
If making a success in the move, CECT will become the first Chinese mobile phone maker going public on the main board of New York Stock Exchange. Besides CECT, Qiaoxing Group also plans to list another subsidiary engaged in 3G R&D in overseas markets. Along with Qiaoxing Universal Telephone, the group will become an important force in the Chinese mobile phone industry and possibly reshuffle the current competition pattern of the market.
CECT's decision to launch IPO on the New York Stock Exchange is buoyed up by a series of goods news concerning its parent company Qiaoxing Universal Telephone.
Recently, Qiaoxing Universal Telephone performed rather well on the stock market, and its share price once soared to USD 17, with the daily turnover being as high as US$30 million, a new record high since July 2000.
"The reason why CECT does not choose the NASDAQ Stock Market is because that Qiaoxing Universal Telephone has been listed there," noted an insider, "Going public on both the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ Stock Market may bring the group stronger financing capability." CECT first decided to offer shares on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong, but with a view to the low price/earning ratio there, it eventually gave up the plan, according to the insider.
Statistics show that CECT had been ranked number 9 and number 4 in the whole Chinese mobile phone market and among Chinese domestic makers respectively for two consecutive months of August and September.
Since Chinese mobile phone makers have known the real need of consumers much better in the recent two years, R&D is no longer a problem obstructing their development.
Under the drive of fledging ones such as Lenovo, CECT, and Dopod, the once leading mobile phone manufacturers start to see profit again, including Bird, TCL, and Amoi. The successful IPO of CECT will further push the Chinese mobile phone industry forward .
Related Channels: China, Wireless

Huawei-3Com (H3C) touts partnership in Korea
Huawei-3Com (H3C), a leading global high performance IP network solution provider, is actively pursuing channel partnership as a part of business revitalization strategy in the Asia-Pacific region.
China-based H3C is now strongly growing in business under cooperation with local channels and partners. The company accelerates its growth momentum through a win-win strategy with Spenocom which agreed on the channel partnership last year. Spenocom, with several years of vast experience in the sales of network devices along with the solid relationships with various number of partners, plays a vital role in uplifting the brand recognition of H3C. Recently, H3C has been building an excellent reputation for equipment stability and performance through the accumulation of references from universities and enterprises.
David Liu, Country Manager from H3C Korea said ”There are few companies who have the full line-up throughout the world” and “H3C maximizes local companies’ satisfaction by supporting them to build up high performance network with cost effectiveness.”
In particular, after forming a partnership with Spenocom, the company has stood out in large-enterprise projects such as MagnaChip (semiconductor corp.) and Nongsim, and university fields including Korea National Sport University, Myongji College, and Inha University.
The CIOs in Korea are looking for solutions that can increase performance, resiliency and management without incurring significant costs. H3C’s multi-service switches offer carrier-class reliability, wire-speed performance, strong security, and large capacity at a cost-effective price point, which meets the high return on investment that entire enterprises demands.
“We have been operating an official training center fully invested by H3C, which is the only one in Korea. The center supervises the certification examination of H3C headquarter and also executes BMTs.” and “Customers’ interests in H3C’s products are increasingly growing and there are many on-going projects adopting its products.” said Hyeo Joo Kim, the CEO of Spenocom.
Spenocom is a leading network business and Alero (an image solution for financial industry) in Korea, which agreed on a strategic partnership with H3C in 2005 and holds various references including universities, enterprises, and public organizations.
Related Channels: Optical Networking, China

Nokia has no plans to enter CDMA-GSM dual-mode market in China
Nokia has no plans to enter the CDMA-GSM dual-mode mobile phone market in China, a company executive said.
"In our (product) development roadmap, there is no such plan (for entering the dual-mode market)," said Larry Paulson, vice-president of product marketing at Nokia's CDMA business unit, in an interview with China Daily.
"We are studying the market. But right now we are ready to invest in R&D activities (related to CDMA-GSM dual-mode phones)."
The remarks come at a time when China Unicom, the country's No 2 cellular operator, is making a big push into the CDMA-GSM dual-mode market.
GSM and CDMA are the two major 2G (second generation) mobile phone standards. Both provide most of the same services, but because of technological differences the phones are incompatible with the other type of network inconvenient for those wanting to use roaming services overseas.
Unicom, one of the few operators in the world that run networks based on both standards, has been trying to bridge the technological differences. Unicom and US wireless firm Qualcomm have developed CDMA-GSM dual-mode phones that allow users to switch between GSM and CDMA networks. And Unicom also offers GSM users high-speed CDMA-based data services.
Earlier this month, Unicom launched seven new dual-mode handsets customized by six manufacturers including Samsung and China's ZTE Corp. For the first time, the new phones enable simultaneous standby of the two telephone numbers based on CDMA and GSM, which is expected to give Unicom's dual-mode handset business a boost.
But Paulson indicated that the dual-mode phone market will remain a niche as "utilization of the dual-mode phones is much for Chinese requirements."
Nokia's support is becoming crucial to China's CDMA market. The Finnish firm was a latecomer to the market. It obtained a licence to make and sell CDMA phones in China in June 2003.
As Qualcomm provides the vast majority of CDMA chipsets sold globally, Unicom has been counting on Nokia's entry to drive down the prices of CDMA handsets. Nokia partnered with Texas Instruments and STMicroelectronics to develop CDMA chipsets.
Nokia announced it would form a CDMA handset joint venture with Japan's Sanyo in February as part of its plans to spin off the underperforming CDMA handset business. That has been a big blow for Unicom, the world's largest CDMA operator.
But Nokia scrapped the plan for the joint venture in June. Paulson said that's because the CDMA market is showing signs of improvement, especially in North America and Latin America.
"We need to alter the direction. We will continue to serve the CDMA market by increasing investment," Paulson said.
Nokia's CDMA business has improved in recent months. Its total handset business has been "surprisingly strong" in the latest fiscal quarter. Yet, the average selling price (ASP) of GSM handsets, which form the majority of Nokia's mobile phone business, has decreased.
But the ASP of CDMA phones has continually grown, noted Paulson, adding Nokia will seek a partnership with Unicom and expand their portfolio to better tap China's CDMA market.
"In the CDMA space, we will forge partnerships with third parties and utilize our design and technological heritage and brands in the GSM market," he said.
Nokia is now the second largest vendor of CDMA phones in China.
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China to launch more than 50 satellites in the next 5 to 10 years
China will launch more than 50 small satellites, each weighing less than 1,000 kilograms, in the next 5 to 10 years, the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp. (CASIC) announced at a major air show in Guangdong province.
The CASIC, the country's leading space company, was introducing its latest technologies, including the three small satellites for the "Kua Fu Mission" to probe the Sun-Earth environment.
China has launched several high-performance small satellites, such as the HY-1A ocean monitoring satellite, since 2001.
China had world-leading technologies in building small satellites, said the CASIC spokesperson, who also revealed that China was actively researching a new type of small carrier rocket to meet the increasing satellite demand and will conduct the first launch around 2010.
The CASIC, officially established in 1999 as the main contractor for the Chinese space program, has more than 180 subsidiary enterprises and institutions nationwide, employing almost 100,000 people.
200 to 300 small satellites will be launched globally in the next 5 to 10 years, said CASIC.
Related Story: China to develop and launch Nigeria's second satellite (See China)
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Chinese telephone subscriber base surpassed 810M at the end of September
China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) reported that from July to September, China's telecommunication industry “grew up smoothly.”
At the end of September, 2006, the number of fixed-line subscribers in China has reached 370 million and China’s mobile phone user base totaled 443 million, bringing the country’s total telephone subscriber base at more than 810 million.
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Africa: Regional African Satellite Communications Organization (RASCOM): Affordable telecom services needed for Africa
Greater efforts should be made to provide affordable telecom services for Africa, in particular for West Africa.
Jones Killimbe, director general of the Regional African Satellite Communications Organization (RASCOM), said telecommunication providers in Africa "are faced with the challenges of rolling out services and providing access to millions of people."
At the Second Annual West Africa Satellite Communications Summit held in the Nigerian capital Abuja, Killimbe said the telecommunication companies are also faced with challenges of delivering services to low income population at low cost.
He stressed the mission of RASCOM, a Cote d'Ivoire-based organization, is to design, implement and maintain the space segment of African telecom satellite system.
The "RASCOM must help to provide an affordable infrastructure on large scale to rural areas of the continent by using appropriate technology, improve and develop inter-urban communication in each country," he said.
He said there was a need for the RASCOM to establish direct links between African countries by providing facilities for radio and television broadcast.
"RASCOM must help support international connectivity, provide a range of services, voice, data, multi-media, tele-education and video conferences among others," he added.
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China to develop and launch Nigeria's second satellite
Senior Special Assistant to Nigeria's President on Media, Mrs. Oluremi Oyo, briefed newsmen on the development at the end of consultation visits on the sidelines of the Forum on China-Africa co-operation which opened in Beijing at the weekend.
Oyo noted that Beijing was currently involved in developing and launching of Nigeria's second satellite and also to collaborate in space technology.
She said Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo met with his Chinese counterpart, Mr. Hu Jintao, in continuation of their bilateral relations, during which, she said, Obasanjo called for greater cooperation.
She said the President also used the opportunity of his visit to China to extend his gratitude to the Chinese government for the support that they had given to Nigeria.
Oyo also pointed out that China extended a $2.5 billion soft loan facility that made it possible for the contract on the first phase of the modernisation of the country's railway system to be signed on Monday.
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Alcatel Shanghai Bell to expand in Africa market
Alcatel Shanghai Bell (ASB) expects Africa to play a major role in its overseas expansion, a company executive said.
"Africa is experiencing a big investment boom in telecom infrastructure, as witnessed in China in the 1980s and 1990s," said Zhou Tao, executive vice-president of ASB, in an interview with China Daily.
"We are expecting huge untapped potential from the telecom market in Africa. We are committed to providing the best solutions to African operators, the best services to African people and to help develop local economies."
The African telecom market has seen rapid growth in recent years. For instance, the number of mobile phone subscribers in Africa hit 76.8 million in 2004, compared to 7.5 million in 1998.
Building telecom infrastructure usually requires huge investment. Inadequate investment and unbalanced development of local economies has widened the digital divide between Africa and developed countries.
The vast majority of telephone users are based in Africa's stronger economies such as South Africa and Egypt.
Compared to the established Western telecom gear-makers, Chinese companies offer more cost-effective equipment and solutions.
Zhou said the Chinese Government's increasing financial support to African countries is giving a boost to the establishment of telecom infrastructure.
ASB, launched in 2002 with Alcatel holding a 50 per cent plus one share, is supervised by China's State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
The Chinese firm has obtained support from the government. The Export-Import Bank of China granted it finance of 500 million yuan (US$63.3 million) in 2004 to aid its overseas expansion.
"As China and African countries build solid political mutual trust, African countries are willing to get Chinese companies involved in more infrastructure projects," said Zhou.
"We believe Chinese telecom equipment makers will have even bigger business opportunities in Africa in the future."
ASB entered the African market in 2000 and has since won major deals in countries such as Ghana, Angora and Nigeria. In 2003, the firm won a US$150 million contract to build a national telecom network in Ghana, the largest of its kind in Africa for the Chinese company.
Zhou said sales from Africa accounted for more than half of ASB's revenue generated from the overseas market "for a time," without giving further details.
ASB's domestic rivals Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp have also been gaining momentum in Africa. Huawei now employs more than 2,000 people in Africa, more than half of whom are locals. The firm has also set up training centres in Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt and Tunisia, which has helped boost local expertise in communications technologies.
Zhou urged the Chinese Government, banks and agencies to find diverse ways to help African operators build telecom infrastructure.
Related Channels: Optical Networking, Wireless, China

South Korea's SK Communications seeking Chinese partner
SK Communications, the online services unit of South Korea's telecom giant SK Telecom, is looking for a partner for its Internet operations in China.
The Dow Jones report, quoting SK Communicaitons CEO Hyun Oh Yoo, said the selection process will be completed by the end of this year or early next year. However, Yoo did not name the potential partner.
SK Communications launched its Chinese-language online community, Cyworld, in June 2005. At the end of August, it had 1.5 million Chinese subscribers. The company is trying to increase the number of subscribers in China.
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Atheros CEO touts single-chip solution for PHS market in China
Atheros Communications expects to capture 25% of the Personal Handyphone System (PHS) market in China by the end of this year.
Atheros has designed a single-chip solution for PHS. Atheros CEO Craig Barratt said that an all-CMOS platform has allowed the company to aggressively push into the mainstream of the Chinese market. Atheros is a supplier to UT Starcom, one of China's major vendors of PHS phones. To date, no other chipmaker has a single-chip solution for PHS, also known in Japan as Personal Access System (PAS).
Previously, PHS growth was thought to quickly taper off last year. Many thought China's telecom companies would wind down network investment for PHS as they turned their attention to 3G.
"People thought that 3G would be rolled out in China much sooner and that that would put pressure on PHS. But as we anticipated, the timeline for those technologies is longer than anyone was originally thinking and that has played into the continuing strength of the PHS market," Barratt said.
Currently, the PHS market in China is about 93 million, according to government statistics. The market is growing at about one million subscribers a month, yet that is down from the peak years of 2004 and 2005 when two million new users per month came online.
PHS has long been under threat from 3G, in part because it may compete for spectrum resources. The delays on 3G will probably come to an end in early 2007. Chinese officials are eager to see 3G networks up and running for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
Related Channels: Wireless, Chips, China

China.com launches US$20M Web 2.0 developer program in China
China.com, a leading internet services provider in China and a Hong Kong listed subsidiary of CDC Corporation , Friday announced its Web 2.0 Developer Program, which includes US$20 million allocated for investment in selected web development partners. China.com will seek to establish strategic relationships with leading local Web 2.0 companies to accelerate the development of innovative products and services targeted specifically for the China market.
China.com will select small to medium size developers with the technological skill, innovative vision and deep understanding of what drives the Chinese Internet community to develop the next generation of products and services in online video, social networking, blogs, 3G and broadband content and mobile search.
Through direct cash investments, equity investments, lines of credit or a combination of these, China.com will invest up to US$20 million in selected Web 2.0 development partners. China.com will also leverage its deep relationships with advertisers and broad knowledge of the market as one of the first Internet companies in China to provide marketing, advertising and sales support to its partners for their products and services. As part of the strategic partnership, China.com's development partners will also be able to leverage the extensive market coverage of the CDC family of companies including millions of growing subscribers of CDC Mobile and China.com and 37 million registered users of CDC Games.
"We are very excited at the potential for Web 2.0 in China and our goal is to be one of the leaders of this vast emerging market," said Dr. Xiaowei Chen, Chief Financial Officer of China.com. "We believe that with our strong financial resources, deep partnership with technology leaders like Google and Microsoft and broad understanding of Chinese Netizens, we are well placed to help our Web 2.0 development partners fully monetize their products and services."
China.com Inc. is a leading Mobile Value Added Services (MVAS) and Internet services company operating principally in China.
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Nortel CEO Mike Zafirovski touts R&D and localization in China
Canadian network gear maker Nortel has opened a new facility in Beijing to strengthen its R&D capabilities in China and support the development of products for customers in Asia and global markets.
The sophisticated facility will develop next-generation communications technology designed to help drive customer profitability and competitive advantage, and showcase them in Nortel's first Executive Briefing Center (EBC) in Asia.
Located at Wangjing, in the Electronic City zone of Beijing's Zhoggnuancun Science & Technology Park, the new campus was officially opened by Mike Zafirovski, president and CEO, Nortel, in the presence of senior Chinese government officials and key China customers this week. The facility features a state-of-the-art R&D lab, the Nortel China headquarters and the new EBC showcase. The EBC will enable customers to meet with Nortel technology and solution experts to explore how revenue opportunities and increased levels of service can be achieved by eliminating barriers to efficiency, productivity and growth.
"This new Wangjing campus marks another milestone for Nortel in China," said Mike Zafirovski. "It signals a significant investment in the strong R&D presence we have developed in China over many years. And it demonstrates our continuing commitment to helping our Chinese customers realize the business benefits enabled by our technology and expertise."
R&D activities at Wangjing form an integral part of Nortel's core global R&D capabilities. They also complement projects underway at existing R&D facilities in Beijing and Guangzhou. Engineers and research specialists at these facilities focus on wireless data networking, next generation IP networking and applications, wireless operations, administration and management systems, and the localization of Nortel products for China and other Asia markets.
The 55,000 sqm Wangjing campus is equipped with the latest audiovisual, presentation and communications equipment, powered by high-speed broadband technology from Nortel's comprehensive enterprise portfolio. This includes a secure WLAN for anywhere, anytime indoor/outdoor Internet access and voice and multimedia services, a converged IP telephony network, IP and WLAN phones, and high-speed data for advanced multimedia applications integrating voice with video, collaboration and presence services.
Related Channels: China, Wireless, Video/IPTV, VoIP, Optical Networking

Security software vendor Symantec to double staff number in its China R&D Center
Security software vendor Symantec plans to expand its China R&D Center in Beijing by doubling the staff number there and creating 300 more jobs by March next year.
Symantec aims to make its R&D center in China one of the major research centers in the world through this expansion.
Mark Bregman, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Symantec, says that Symantec spends 15% of its global revenue each year on R&D and the new center in China will play a more important role in the company's global development.
Besides expanding the R&D Center, Symantec will also cooperate with Redflag Linux to launch a new solution called Storage Foundation based on the latter's Linux system.
Symantec established its China R&D Center in September 2004.
Related Channels: China, OSS & Security

Huawei rapidly repaired CDMA network after typhoon disaster for Vietnam's operator EVNT
China's Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. recently helped EVNT, an operator of Vietnam, repair its CDMA network which was attacked by typhoon within three days upon the attack day.
On the early morning of 1st October 2006, the severest typhoon of recent 20 years attacked the medium area of Vietnam and caused heavy loss. EVNT's network in the provinces of Danang, Hue and Quang Nam has been damaged so heavily that many iron towers were blown down, optical fibers were scratched off, accordingly the CDMA network service was interrupted in several districts.
As the first supplier of EVNT, Huawei assigned engineers to the spot on the very day of disaster occurred and soon after assembled network optimization team to optimize the network. Eventually, the re-construction work of the CDMA network was completed within three days and the services have been running quiet in gear now.
Mr.Tran Nga, Deputy Director of EVNT Center 2, remarked that: "Our network has undergone unprecedented damages, while Huawei just spent three days to repair it for us, which showed Huawei's rapid response and professional service are worthy of trust."
The cooperation between Huawei and EVNT began since the year 2003 and by now EVNT has delivered CDMA services around the most regions of Vietnam with the help of Huawei.
Related Channels: Wireless, China

China's National Taxation System selected Huawei-3Com (H3C) for efficient network upgrade
To deploy the collective service mode of the State Administration of Taxation of China, the national taxation system is in bad need of upgrading and reconstructing the existing network platform. Enhanced network links and equipment performance will be a solid technical basis for the collective taxation in 2006. Finally, China-based Huawei-3Com (H3C) passed all checkpoints and became a vendor in the network upgrading and reconstruction project of the national taxation system.
H3C equipment will considerably lift the performance of the backbone networks of the taxation system throughout China. In addition to improved processing capability of the location area networks (LANs), reconstructed networks will have efficient routing policies, support point-to-point (PTP) quality of service (QoS), allow class-based traffic division, and deploy policies. Voice and video services can be carried out on upgraded networks. The digital network platform of the national taxation system is a technical basis for the integrated collection system and service applications to be deployed.
In this project, H3C has offered state-of-the-art equipment that allows expansion in both technology and configuration. The AR series will be deployed in most cases in the project. The AR series lay focus on both service and performance. The unified procurement for the national taxation system will promote the taxation collection and electronic government construction in the future and bring a positive social effect.
The leading official of the project said that they chose H3C was because of not only the outstanding products, technologies and services, but also their leading idea and understanding on a taxation system. The leading official believed H3C would be able to offer technical and conceptual support to the IT construction in the next step.
Further upgrading and reconstruction of the national taxation system are an important part of the IT construction of China. It pushes the development of the national taxation system based on IT technologies and provides a reference for the construction of the taxation system. H3C claimed that they would, based on the idea of constructing customized networks for each customer, offer all-round services to all customers in the tax industry with best technologies, products and staff.
Related Channels: China, Optical Networking, OSS

Corning establishes TFT-LCD glass finishing facility in China
Corning Incorporated announced Friday that its wholly owned subsidiary in the People's Republic of China hosted a groundbreaking ceremony for a new liquid crystal display (LCD) glass substrate finishing facility.
Corning was the first TFT-LCD glass substrate supplier to announce that it would locate a production facility on the China mainland. The facility, located in the Beijing Economic Technological Development Area, is expected to open in the first half of 2008.
"The plant that will be built on this site will become a dynamic symbol of our commitment to the growing Chinese TFT-LCD industry," said Wendell P. Weeks, president and chief executive officer, Corning Incorporated. "It's also a key element in our strategy to grow with our customers, while we support one of this country's most important industries," Weeks said during his address to the many officials, customers, media and employees gathered for the celebration.
Other Corning leaders who spoke at the ceremony were Clark S. Kinlin, chief executive officer, Greater China; James P. Clappin, president, Corning Display Technologies; and John P. Bayne, president, Corning Display Technologies China.
"Corning's investment enhances our position as a leading supplier of the most pristine LCD glass substrates in the world," said Clappin. "We are committed to the LCD industry in China and to growing with our customers in this important region of the world market."
Historically, Corning has been first to enter the LCD-producing regions that we serve, beginning with glass finishing and then assessing the need for other operations at a later date, based on market and customer demand.
According to industry analysts and Corning's own market analysis, requirements for LCD glass grew approximately 60 percent worldwide in 2005. Driving the demand for glass are the facts that an increasing number of CRT screens are being replaced by LCDs, and the penetration level of flat panel displays used for desktop monitors and televisions are also increasing. LCD TVs are continuing to grow in popularity, representing 11 percent of the global TV market in 2005.
Related Channels: Video, Photonics, China

Shanghai-based Sina 3Q advertising revenue rises 42%
Chinese Web portal and mobile services company Sina Corp. said its 3Q profit rose 18% on strong growth in advertising revenue, and a drop in sales and marketing expenses.
Advertising revenue increased 42% year-over-year to $32.7 million
Quarterly earnings increased to $10.7 million, or 19 cents per share, from $9.1 million, or 16 cents per share, during the same period last year.
Results included stock options expenses, amortization and other charges. Excluding these items, profit totaled 25 cents per share.
For 4Q, Sina expects revenue between $53 million and $56 million, above current analyst expectations for revenue of $52.5 million.
Related Channels: China, Wireless

Highlights for China's telecom sector during January-September, 2006
- China's telecom business revenue reached 1,058.92 billion yuan, +25.5% year on year.
- Mobile communication, the driving force of China's telecom revenue growth, recorded a year on year 18.3% revenue growth in the period, taking up 47.1% of the total revenue in the telecom industry.
- The number of mobile phone users increased by 49.748 million in the January-September period, hitting 443.154 million by the end of September.
- The mobile packet data sector had 117.207 million users by the end of September, including 49.748 million added in the first nine months of this year. Its proportion in the mobile phone users surged to 26.4% from 18.0% at the end of 2005.
- In the mobile telecom field, mobile data business grew rapidly to take up 21.0% of the total operating turnover.
- The number of wireless local phone users reported a growth of 8.034 million in the first nine months of 2006 to hit 93.334 million. Its proportion in the fixed phone users rose to 25.3%.
- The number of fixed phone users in China increased by 18.861 million to reach 369.306 million by the end of September this year. Of this, newly added users in urban areas in the first nine months was 13.594 million, bringing the total up to 253.346 million; and that in rural areas reached 5.267 million, bringing the total up to 115.96 million.
- The telecom industry completed 142.48 billion yuan in fixed assets investment in the first nine months of this year, 17.7% higher than that in the same period of 2005.
- Data communication remained the fastest-growing sector, with a revenue growth of 22.2% in the period, two fold higher than that of the growth of the main operating revenue of the telecom industry in January-September, 2006.
- The proportion of fixed phone and long-distance phone business revenue in the total telecom turnover dropped by 2.49% and 1.06% respectively year on year, while that of mobile telecom and data communication rose by 2.89% and 0.71% respectively.
Related Channels: China, Wireless

China Mobile to focus its overseas expansion on emerging markets in Asia and Latin America
China Mobile, the nation's largest telecom operator, will focus its overseas expansion on emerging markets in Asia and Latin America, the company's chief executive Wang Jianzhou said.
China Mobile will use its experience from operating in Chinese market conditions to expand on both continents, Wang told a forum in Beijing.
In particular, the company will concentrate on countries that are at a similar stage of development as China or slightly behind.
"The main purpose of going global is to create more opportunities to make profit, everything should be judged by this criterion. We must be careful in choosing target companies," Wang said.
"China Mobile has no interest in the mature markets of North America and Western Europe," he said.
In China, rural markets are contributing more to the company with over 50% of new subscribers in the first half coming from the countryside, he said.
Cost controls in rural areas are very important as the segment features lower average revenue per user compared with cities, according to Wang.
China Mobile has over 300 million subscribers in total.
Related Channels: China, Wireless

Datang Mobile partners with CITCC
Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co., Ltd. (DT Mobile) and China International Telecommunication Construction Corporation (CITCC), China's largest construction enterprise, has reached a strategic agreement about fully cooperating on service field based on the TD-SCDMA technology.
Under the agreement, CITCC will generally contract the communication projects and provide network system maintenance for DT Mobile, who will provide correspond technology sustain and product training. And the two companies will cooperate in several fields like promotion of TD-SCDMA technology and application services.
As the main developer of TD-SCDMA, through technology authorization and industry cooperation, DT Mobile has established partnership with over 20 enterprises home and abroad in product development, manufacture and production, market, service and so on, has greatly promoted the development of TD-SCDMA.
Related Channels: China, Wireless

China Mobile Guangdong to expand its GPRS packet core network
Nokia, a leading mobile network supplier in China, announced today that it has signed a GPRS packet core network expansion contract with Guangdong Mobile Communications Corporation Ltd. (Guangdong MCC). Nokia will provide its intelligent GPRS packet core solution for the 8th GPRS expansion of Guangdong MCC and will thus become the leading GPRS network provider in the province.
Under the contract, Nokia will supply Guangdong MCC with its complete Nokia GPRS packet core solution, consisting of Nokia Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN), Nokia Flexi Intelligent Service Node, and the Nokia Charging Gateway. The solution supports the state-of-the-art content charging functionality, and provides an easy migration path to Nokia Combi SGSN as the 3G access support capability can be achieved with simple memory and interface upgrades. The network will be supported by the multivendor, multitechnology Nokia NetAct(TM) network and service management system, including Nokia NetAct(TM) Traffica. Nokia will also provide network planning, implementation and integration services. Deliveries have started and the network will be serving more than 11 million data subscribers in the Eastern Guangdong province, expanded from Shenzhen to include DongGuan and Huizhou, in December 2006.
Related Channels: China, Wireless

Shanghai-based Comlent starts sampling the world's first RFIC transceiver and ABB chipset for TD-SCDMA
Shanghai-based Comlent Technology Inc., the only Radio Frequency Integrated Circuit (RFIC) corporate member of China's 3G standard TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance (TDIA), has started sampling RFIC transceiver and analog baseband (ABB) chipset in advanced CMOS technology for TD-SCDMA, the world's first in its kind.
The chipset includes a single chip transceiver CL4020 that uses a direct-conversion architecture that integrates the voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO), fractional-N phase-locked loop (PLL), a receiving channel select filter and a transmit driver amplifier and an analog baseband (ABB) chip CL4520 that uses digital signal processing (DSP) to compensate for the imperfections in the analog channel-select filter and to perform dc-offset cancellation. The transmit channel achieves the root mean square (RMS) of the error vectors, EVM, of less than 4%. The phase locked loop integrated phase noise from 1KHz through 640KHz achieves 0.85 degree and noise figure of whole receiving channel is below 4dB, to name a few performance indicators.
The testing was conducted in "Agilent-Comlent TD-SCDMA RF Labs", the only such RF testing lab for TD-SCDMA in Asia. Nearly a dozen inventions have been disclosed during the development of this chipset. Most of them are being filed for patents in both China and the US.
Before this, TD-SCDMA transceivers provided by two foreign companies were both BiCMOS technology based and cover only one of the two allocated frequencies (1880MHz-1920MHz and 2010MHz-2025MHz) to TD-SCDMA in China. CL4020 is world¡¯s first dual-band CMOS TD-SCDMA transceiver that also lifts China's final bottleneck of domestic TD-SCDMA equipment and chip supplying chain. RF transceiver has been identified as the bottleneck of domestic industrial base by China for both TD-SCDMA and other modern wireless communications. The technical report of CL4020 has been accepted by IEEE International Solid State Circuit Conference (ISSCC), the show case chip design conference. This is also the first time ever that a China-based company is recognized by this technical summit of global chip design community for demonstrating the world-class result of a major chip in whole.
Comlent, established in Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-tech Park in 2002 as the first and currently leading RF and mixed signal IC design house in China, has built a hybrid team of local fresh talent combined with experienced overseas expatriates, CMOS RF and SoC design capability, market channel and strong local government support from ground up. Comlent has been the only RFIC transceiver chip vendor sponsored by Chinese 3G national research grants as well as the only RFIC chip vendor in TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance (TDIA) since April 2006 through a very selective process.
In the past 4 years, Comlent has envisioned and executed a unique 'local plus mobile' strategy. The cornerstone of this strategy is to focus on enabling however cost effective chip solution for explosive wireless and broadcasting consumer markets in China', stated Dr. Kai Chen, co-founder and CEO of Comlent, 'Following two trends lend Comlent strong support and leverage. On the one hand, China has become the global manufacturing center of consumer electronics. On the other China has drafted and is implementing a series of national standards such as 3G mobile communications (TD-SCDMA vs. CDMA2000 in the US), Digital TV (DMB-T/H and STiMi vs. DVB-H in Europe) and satellite global positioning system (Beidou or CNSS vs. GPS in the US)', continued Dr. Kai Chen, 'To better equip Comlent to benefit most from the opportunities, Comlent has strategically evolved and transformed itself from a BiCMOS based RF only company when started four years ago into a CMOS based RF, mixed signal and digital SoC company.
Related Channels: China, Chips, Wireless

‘Win-win‘ touted at China Mobile Broadband Communications Leadership Seminar
On Oct. 27th, 2006, China Mobile Broadband Communications Leadership Seminar jointly held by TD-SCDMA Forum and UMTS Forum was held in Beijing. Attendees of this seminar include representatives from member organizations of TD-SCDMA Forum, UMTS Forum and its workgroups, High and New Technology Development and Industrialization Department of MOST, CATR, China Mobile, France Telecom China R&D center, Datang Mobile and European Chamber of Commerce in China, etc.
Topics like TD-SCDMA Perspectives in the Chinese Market, 3G/UMTS Global Deployment Status & Perspectives for China, Prospectives for Broadband Mobile Communication, China telecom operators experience, TD-SCDMA and WCDMA complementary roles, Lessons Learnt from 3G/UMTS Deployments in Europe, Business & Competition Development with 3G licensing: Recommendations from European Companies, Current Recommendations and Long Term Perspectives for 3G/UMTS Spectrum, Mobile TV from 3G and broadcast networks and etc.
Dr. Jing Wang, Secretary General of the TD-SCDMA Forum, said: "the speed of TD-SCDMA development has been with unprecedented speed, and now it is at the final preparatory stage prior to commercial deployment. Experiences and lessons from UMTS will further shorten the learning curve of TD-SCDMA, enabling both technologies to address the Chinese market demand simultaneously with respective advantages after licenses are granted. As both TD-SCDMA and UMTS will evolve to LTE (Long Term Evolution) platform, the key technologies in both standards will converge."
The development of 3G system is relatively slow than what we have expected. This can be attributed to the influence of global information industry. In addition, the continuous updates in 3G standards, the relatively slow R&D of 3G commercial products and applications also slowed down this process. However, we believe 3G technology and equipments will mature with the measures taken by relevant government agencies of different countries.
"Data spending is increasing, especially in Asia", noted Bienaime "In conjunction with W-CDMA, TD-SCDMA provides the key for Chinese operators to deliver a compelling portfolio of mobile broadband services in highly-penetrated urban areas at a realistic cost." Bienaime also emphasized the complementary roles of W-CDMA and China‘s ‘home-grown‘ TD-SCDMA technology that is approved by the ITU and fully standardised as an IMT 2000 system within the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).
“It is impractical to deploy large-scale TD-SCDMA network outside China at present.” Dr. Wang , Secretary General of the TD-SCDMA Forum, said. The TD-SCDMA will not be adopted by other countries without its success in China. Different 3G technologies will converge, including core network and terminals. The main differences between different 3G technologies lie in the access technology. Interoperability has been taken into consideration at the beginning of TD-SCDMA R&D. So far all TD terminals are GSM/TD dual mode terminals.
The UMTS Forum Chairman urged China‘s national administration to issue 3G licenses at the earliest opportunity: "Issuing licenses no later than the first quarter of next year would enable operators to plan a phased deployment of 3G in time for 2008‘s Olympic Games", said Bienaim? "As has already been demonstrated at high-profile sporting events like this year‘s football World Cup finals, there‘s no more powerful advertisement for the capabilities of 3G/UMTS to consumers."
Dr. Jing Wang stated at the end of the seminar: "the TD-SCDMA Forum will continue the close partnership with the UMTS Forum to create a win-win environment for both standards in China and globally".
Related Channels: China, Wireless

Shanghai Dragon Mobile Media touts mobile phone TV in China
Mobile phone TV has been hailed as a possible breakthrough media, capable of crowning the industry's next king.
"Mobile phone TV could very possibly hold the key to becoming the newest star," Liu Wenze, business development director of Shanghai Dragon Mobile Media Corp, said yesterday during the Mobile Multimedia Applications Conference in Beijing.
Liu said mobile phone TV could well grow into a fifth powerful medium after newspapers, TV, radio and the Internet.
"The Chinese are spending more money in the entertainment sector, contributing enormously to a prosperous advertising market," he said.
As the latest fashionable media, mobile phone TV has development potential because of its portability and its lack of age limitations even children carry phones now.
China has more than 430 million mobile phone users, and conference participants regard the country as one of the world's most promising markets for mobile TV and other value-added wireless services.
With the standard for broadcasting signals to mobile phones, which was developed in China, taking effect yesterday, the mobile TV industry took another step forward.
Major mobile service providers, such as China Mobile and China Unicom, have already set up mobile TV systems of their own, but use other specifications. Adapting to the new standard will take time.
Related Channels: China, Wireless, Video

China's 3G launch to drive demand for wireless testers
The Chinese government is expected to issue 3G licenses, including the home-grown TD-SCDMA, early next year. This will lead to tremendous investment in the telecom market and benefit both 3G terminal equipment makers and IT vendors.
This is also encouraging equipment manufacturers, service providers and consumers to invest in the promising wireless test and measurement equipment market.
There is increasing demand for mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and advanced electronic communication devices. These support broad applications such as gaming, multimedia messaging, e-mails, faxes, voicemails and streaming video. Customers are also demanding enhanced graphic functionalities, greater battery life and error-free reception of data transmitted over the network. This offers opportunities for testing at both the physical and application layers of these devices thereby, strengthening demand in the wireless testing and measurement equipment market.
"Growing network demands call for greater capacity, increased bandwidth and higher throughput in network systems," notes Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst David Ren. "Test equipment manufacturers or service providers need to constantly evolve their products and services to meet these demands and keep pace with the developments in the wireless communication industry."
Development of technologies such as universal mobile telecommunication systems (UMTS), enhanced data for global system for mobile (GSM) evolution (EDGE) and wideband (W) CDMA was to meet these networks demands.
However, the rapidly evolving technologies and standards create a unique challenge for manufacturers. As data, voice and video services converge in the networks, their testing and measurement is becoming more complex.
"Vendors need to enhance test equipments capability to integrate physical and protocol layer level testing for multiple standards, interfaces and protocols in a single instrument," says Ren.
End users are expecting their test equipment to have a long shelf life and a platform to which they can add other hardware and software modules when new technologies are developed. Manufacturers can retain customers by designing test equipment that is scaleable and easily upgradeable for retaining customers.
Related Channels: China, Test, Wireless

Asia Pacific to lead global revolution in IPTV with China as the future IPTV dragon
Asia Pacific will lead the global revolution in IPTV in terms of subscribers, service revenue and infrastructure. The region's broadband penetration, supportive regulatory framework, will fuel the growth, according to the latest report from Research and Markets.
China is eyed to be the future IPTV dragon due to its rapid urbanization, fast growing economy and expanding middle class.
In 2009, the worldwide IPTV service revenue is forecasted to reach $38 billion. Moreover, the worldwide IPTV subscribers are forecasted to reach 53 million in the year 2009.
North America and Western Europe are expected to be the revenue-per-user leaders due to higher personal income there.
The potential for IPTV market varies highly across the globe depending upon the local pay-TV market and regulatory conditions.
The United States will be a more difficult market for IPTV due to high existing pay-TV penetration, and stiff price and service competition that is likely to come from the entrenched operators in the cable and satellite sectors.
Consumer familiarity with IPTV service is still very low although the youth today are much more aware of it when compared with people belonging to other age groups.
Theoretically, IPTV is more cost-effective than cable and satellite TV.
Related Channels: Video/IPTV, China

Huawei-3Com (H3C) showcased at the 11th IT Government Exhibition for Korean government officers
China-based Huawei-3Com (H3C) participated at the 11th IT government exhibition recently held in beautiful coastal cities, Chungmu Marina Resort, Tongyeong City Gyeongnam Province. The exhibition was co-organized by Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs Korea IT Service Industry Association. It was the largest exhibition especially designed for Korean government officers to update them the latest IT technologies and trend.
H3C Korea showcased its full product series of switches and routers, and network solutions for government networks. More than 330 government officers visited at H3C’s booth to study H3C networking products, solutions and case studies, such as the Korea Trade Promotion Corporate and Korea President and National Policy Agency. Most of the visitors showed much interest in H3C.
They were very impressed by H3C technologies and competitive advantages after learning H3C’s products and solution tailor made for government networks.
Related Channels: Optical Networking, China

Beijing City Government's Information Office and EMC to collaborate on "Digital Beijing" initiatives
The Beijing City Government's Information Office and EMC Corporation signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to collaborate on the city government's "Digital Beijing" initiatives. Over the next few years, the city of Beijing will collaborate with EMC to build a state-of-the-art information infrastructure that will ultimately house the city's digital assets. Mr. Joseph M. Tucci, Chairman, President and CEO of EMC, and Mr. Zhao Fengtong, Vice Mayor of the City of Beijing, hosted today's signing ceremony.
Mr. Zhao Fengtong said, "The Beijing City Government is committed to the development of a comprehensive and advanced information infrastructure. We are pleased that EMC is investing its technology and expertise in support of the city of Beijing's digital initiatives. Through the adoption of innovative information technologies, we expect to improve the city's efficiency and quality of service for our citizens."
Related Channels: China, Optical Networking, OSS & Security

Intel to invest over US$1 billion on rural area informationization program in China
Intel has initiated a rural program in Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province as part of the company's efforts in carrying out a rural program in the developing countries and regions all over the world.
Intel plans to invest over US$1 billion on the rural program, which involves promoting informationization in the rural areas.
In Guangdong, Intel will help the local government to set up 300 rural community computer centers and 105 digital clinics by the end of 2006. After achieving success in this area, it will gradually popularize the pattern in other regions across China.
In July this year, Intel signed an MOU with China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII), agreeing to push forward the informationization in the cities, rural areas and enterprises of China and invest an initial US$30 million in support of China's rural communications.
Related Channels: China, Investment, Chips, Wireless, Optical Networking, OSS

Chinese animated cartoon market to hit RMB100 billion in next three to five years
Experts in the animated cartoon industry predict that the coming three to five years will be a golden period for the development of China's animated cartoon industry and the total market value will reach RMB100 billion during the same period.
Lu Xuewu, Director of the School of Animated Cartoons from Chinese Media University, says that there are about 500 million cartoon consumers in China, of which about 320 million are youngsters. Lu says that this huge market demand will drive up China's animated cartoon industry.
Cina's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has designated 15 national-level cartoon industry bases. 50 Chinese cities will also push the cartoon industry during the 11th Five-Year Plan period.
Related Channels: China, Video/IPTV

Lenovo pre-loads mInfo's mobile search service
Chinese mobile search service provider mInfo has been selected by PC giant Lenovo to be pre-loaded into its latest mainstream phone.
''mInfo is very pleased to be working with a market leader such as Lenovo in making mobile search available to Chinese mobile users. Cooperation with Lenovo opens up a new channel for even more users to experience the benefits of mInfo mobile search,'' said Alvin Wang Graylin, CEO. ''mInfo's technology leadership, content library and mobile experience make us a clear choice for partners like Lenovo."
Chinese mobile users can access mInfo's search services via SMS, WAP and IM, and now with this new partnership, Lenovo handset users can find answers to question on the go directly from their phones.
mInfo's search service is shipping now nationwide on Lenovo's new mainstream V339 slide phone. This phone is retail priced in the 1500RMB range.
Related Channels: China, Wireless, OSS

Photonics vendor OCP to move into high-volume production in China
California-based Optical Communication Products (OCP), Inc. has reached an agreement with SAE Magnetics (H.K.) Limited (SAE), a wholly-owned subsidiary of TDK Corporation, which will enable the Company to manufacture certain of its product lines in China commencing in the summer of 2007. OCP will maintain its existing manufacturing facilities in Woodland Hills, California, and Hsinchu, Taiwan, but will reduce these workforces once manufacturing at SAE begins.
"Our partnership with SAE enhances our ability to serve our customers by dramatically expanding our manufacturing capacity while providing the high-performance products these customers require," said Philip F. Otto, OCP's CEO. "With the acquisition of GigaComm in August 2006, we entered Japan, and took a leading position in the fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) optical components market. Now, we plan to move into high-volume production in China to augment our proven capabilities in short-run, specialized applications."
Related Channels: Photonics, China

Xilinx launches its Asia Pacific Technology Fund for China, India, Taiwan and Korea
At the Global Entrepolis Singapore event in Singapore, Xilinx, Inc. announced its Asia Pacific Technology Fund, a US$75 million corporate venture capital (VC) fund focused on accelerating programmable systems innovation and development within the Asia Pacific technology market. It is the company's first regionally-focused funding initiative for the booming Asia Pacific programmable logic device (PLD) market and the largest corporate venture capital fund to be launched by any company at Global Entrepolis Singapore to date. Administered by Xilinx Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore, the fund is designed to seek opportunities to invest in companies throughout the region including China, India, Taiwan and Korea.
Xilinx is looking to invest in companies who are creating innovative applications based on programmable logic, targeted at key vertical markets such as wired/wireless communications, consumer, automotive, audio/video/broadcast, industrial/scientific/medical, and storage/servers or technology domains such as high-performance DSP and embedded processing. Xilinx is also interested to invest in companies developing technologies and solutions to increase the adoption of programmable logic throughout the company's continuously expanding ecosystem -- from manufacturing, silicon, software, intellectual property, design services and technical support. Potential investments range from US$500,000 to US$5 million.
Related Channels: Investment, Chips, China

Dhanalakshmi Bank deploys Huawei-3Com (H3C) switches
China-based Huawei-3Com (H3C), a leading IP networking company, recently announced successful deployment of Wide Area Network to connect all branches of Thrissur-based Dhanalakshmi Bank Ltd. H3C has provided upgraded technology required for Dhanalakshmi Bank’s better banking performance to offer value added facilities to its customers and security to achieve more cost-effective high-speed network.
The first phase called for providing connectivity to 70 branches, networking of Data Center and the second phase for connecting the remaining 70 branches. Data Recovery Center was set up in 2004 and the second phase was completed in 2006. The challenge for H3C was to provide branch connectivity with data center and data recovery center with backup links.
Eric Zhao, Managing Director of H3C India said, “Our expertise in responsive and customized product development helped us design a highly cost-effective solution for Dhanalakshmi Bank. Our comprehensive products line inclusive of hi-performance core switch and router fitted the requirement of Dhanalakshmi Bank perfectly”.
To meet the key requirement of high quality and performance, H3C’s high end AR 46 series router has been deployed and multiple routers have been configured as cluster to guarantee zero downtime. Also, different branches have been configured with different cost to maintain the optimum bandwidth between branches and data centers. Since the entire small city branches are connected with multiple locations of major city branches it automatically selects the shortest path between routers to establish the connectivity.
H3C’s non blocking wire speed, fully redundant core switch and edge switch has been set-up for data center network with NMS (Network Management System) as it provided high performance and reliability, advanced routing protocol deployment and auto failover.
Related Channels: Optical Networking, China

Huawei-3Com (H3C) improves network performance for Korea's Myongji College
Founded in 1974, Myongji College is one of the largest and top rated in South Korea. Its IDC center manages web hosting and web server co-location services. As network traffic and service demands increased, the core switch in the IDC center was no longer able to sustain high levels of performance and stability. Myongji turned to its partner, China-based Huawei-3Com (H3C), to replace its aging core switch and improve the overall reliability and performance of its campus network.
When looking for vendors to upgrade their core switching gear, H3C was a natural choice as its products offered the performance requirements the IDC center needed along with improved security, management, interoperability and reliability at an extremely cost-effective price. H3C performed the upgrade quickly and efficiently backed by its leading support service team.
To boost the performance capabilities of Myongji College’s IDC center, H3C installed its S8505 (H3C S9505) series 10G multi-service core routing switch. The S8500 (H3C S9500) series switch is a new-generation switch that supports a high-speed 10Gbps interface card for low cost performance, carrier-class reliability (up to 99.999%) and the capacity to support abundant services.
The S8505 (H3C S9505) switch delivers the performance Myongji required while also providing improved reliability, high availability and complete security and management tools for reduced maintenance costs and lower TCO.
Related Channels: Optical Networking, China

Mobile phone game giants to rush into Chinese 3G market
At a forum for the mobile phone games industry of the fifth VAS 2006 forum, mobile phone games became the focus.
According to the the organizing committee Value-added Service Committee of China Association of Communication Enterprises, world magnates of mobile phone games like Hands-on Mobile, Hudson Network, Gamepot, Com2Us and Active Company gazed at the huge opportunities in Chinese market.
Mobile phone games have big market potentials and focus on products innovation and users' experiences, so they attract the attention of government and operators present at the forum. Besides foreign operators, China Mobile and China Unicom also participated in it and set a strategic goal for the development for the mobile phone games industry. The industry follows the latest trends of policy supervision of service providers (SP) and will bring along the revival of SP industry.
The forum is considered to be a rehearsal of Global Summit of 3G, which will be held in mid November.
China is expected to issue 3G licenses early next year.
Related Channels: China, Wireless, Video

Chinese Internet search engine Baidu's 3Q profits up sharply, eying on mobile and video biz for further growth
Baidu.com Inc., the leading Chinese Internet search engine, said Wednesday its third-quarter profits rose sharply as it expanded mobile and other new services.
Net income for the quarter was US$10.8 million, up more than 900% from the same quarter last year, as revenues rose 169.1% to 239.3 million yuan (US$30.3 million).
"During the quarter, we continued to strengthen our position as the leading provider of Chinese language search," Robin Li, Baidu's Chairman and CEO, said in a conference call with analysts.
Baidu has 62.1% of China's search market, compared with 23.5% for No. 2 Google (China) Inc., according to a report in August by China Internet Network Information Center.
China's Internet market is the world's second-biggest after the United States, with more than 123 million people online. China is expected to become the world's largest Internet market next year.
Baidu makes most of its money from advertising. But it is entering into other businesses, and announced a deal this month with Viacom Inc.'s MTV Networks to distribute music, videos and programs from MTV and the children's channel Nickelodeon over the Internet.
Another key growth area is wireless/mobile search as Baidu modifies its search and other services such as weather and stock market reports for use on mobile phones and other devices, Li said.
"We've seen good results from this early effort and expect this to be an area of growth in the future," Li said.
Related Channels: China, Wireless, Video, OSS

Microsoft makes licensing deals with Comtech and Talkweb in China
Microsoft Corp. has struck licensing deals with two companies in China that will incorporate technologies from its Beijing research lab into their products, promising Microsoft a piece of the resulting revenue in return.
The deals with Comtech Group Inc. and Hunan Talkweb Information System Co. are the first of their kind for Microsoft in China. They include technologies for viewing videos on mobile devices and for turning photos into cartoon sketches.
It is the latest step in Microsoft's long-standing effort to build its business in China. The company is exploring a variety of additional arrangements with entrepreneurs and companies in China, said David Harnett, senior director of Microsoft's IP Ventures group. The group has been making similar technology licensing deals in the United States and Europe.
"Chinese companies are now increasingly becoming more innovative, increasingly understanding that innovation is intellectual property, and increasingly making money from their intellectual property," Harnett said.
Earlier this year, Microsoft announced plans to spend $3.7 billion in China over the next five years through technology purchases and partnerships with companies there. That announcement followed Chinese President Hu Jintao's visit to Seattle and the Microsoft campus.
Comtech, which designs custom subsystems for electronics manufacturers, licensed one Microsoft technology called Mobile Picture, for viewing photos on mobile devices, and another called Mobile Bandwidth Optimization for sending compressed video over a low-bandwidth network.
Talkweb, as the other company is commonly known, licensed a technology called Personalized Facial Sketch for turning photos into cartoons. People can upload photos to a Web site, turn them into cartoons and send them to mobile devices.
Li Xinyu, Talkweb's CEO, said through a translator that he sees large potential for the service in the Chinese market, noting that there are 120 million Internet users and 400 million people with mobile devices in the country. "The cooperation with Microsoft today is very important to us," he said.
Apart from the opportunity for revenue, the licensing deals could give Microsoft further experience in the Chinese market and more connections to industry partners in that country, said David Bachman, a professor specializing in China at the University of Washington's Jackson School of International Studies.
"Clearly China is a very large market that Microsoft is going to have to be involved in if it wants to maintain competitiveness," Bachman said.
Related Channels: China, Wireless, Video, OSS

China Unicom picks ZTE for the GSM to GPRS upgrade of 12 Chinese provinces
ZTE, a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, has been awarded a contract for the GSM to GPRS upgrade of 12 Chinese provinces for China Unicom as a part of the operator's national GSM network upgrade. This is the largest contract awarded to any one company in the upgrade programme.
This agreement is the latest in a series ZTE has won with China Unicom, including the WDM backbone contract won earlier this month, and the national trunk line project in 2005.
China Unicom has chosen ZTE's GPRS/3G core network equipment based on the WCDMA V3 hardware platform and R4 standards which allow a smooth upgrade to R5/R6. ZTE is the only provider in the industry with a common multi-network platform. Hardware boards are inter-operable, and the high reusability of a single board means that operational and maintenance costs are greatly reduced. Recent high capacity tests run by Chinese domestic operators showed ZTE's ZXWN SGSN/GGSN equipment to have the highest standard capacity in the market.
"ZTE's soft switch equipment has been successfully applied domestically as well as abroad. We believe it can effectively reduce the CAPX and OPEX of China Unicom, delivering real commercial advantage," said Ding Mingfeng, the general manager of ZTE's business department.
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Comarco's scanning receiver supports TD-SCDMA testing
Comarco Wireless Test Solutions is extending its Prizm Scanning Receiver System to support the emerging TD-SCDMA standard currently being deployed in China. The Prizm System is a scanning receiver used by cellular carriers to deploy, monitor and troubleshoot cellular networks that conform to the TD-SCDMA 3G standard.
"TD-SCDMA promises a significant advance over similar systems, providing both increased capacity and advanced data features and is being positioned to support the rapid growth expected in the China mobile marketplace," notes Mark Chapman, senior vice president and general manager of Comarco Wireless Test Solutions. "With TD-SCDMA, China has adopted a third generation technology that more easily accommodates asymmetric traffic with different data rate requirements on downlink and uplink. Comarco's extensive experience with other CDMA technologies gives us a unique insight into the requirements needed to support this emergent and exciting standard. Furthermore our proven ability to support multiple technologies and frequency bands has allowed us to rapidly bring a superior product to market in support of this unique and growing market opportunity."
The Comarco Prizm scanner supports many new features specific to TD-SCDMA, including DwPTS detection, which simplifies performance analysis by identifying individual DwPTS in a spectrum and facilitates identification of the strongest DwPTS.
In addition, automatic scrambling code decoding simplifies performance analysis by showing the individual PCCPCH, which in turn permits identification of the strongest PCCPCH and eases base station identification. These features provide a complete and independent assessment of the network separate from that reported by the handset, providing validation and verificati on of important RF network parameters. Additionally, advanced statistical time and delay measurements provide automated and accurate delay spread analysis, thus permitting the detection of any synchronization issues. The Prizm also offers a full complement of programmable multi-band RF spectrum measurements in addition to TD-SCDMA modes of operation.
Related Channels: Test, Wireless, China

LED chip maker Epistar to add investment in China
Epistar, a Taiwan-based LED chip maker, will invest an additional US$12 million in Epistar (Xiamen) in China to develop LED chips.
Related Channels: Photonics & Chips, China

Huawei-3Com (H3C) hosts training seminar and showcases switches and routers in Thailand
Huawei-3Com (H3C) Thailand successfully hosted a training seminar for “Metropolitan Electricity Authority (MEA) ” in Khaoyai, Nakornratchasima to demonstrate the benefits of its carrier-class network solutions and to showcase new product family of H3C Switches and Routers.
Mr. Prasit Hemwarapornchai, Deputy Governor of MEA kicked off the seminar by a keynote speech to address the network trend in government and electricity. It followed by H3C’s sharing of its networking products and solution specially designed for government. MEA was particularly interested in China-based H3C’s new technologies of MPLS and RPR, which were widely discussed during the seminar. H3C IP networking products and solutions surely is one of the new and best choice for state enterprise.
MEA is a state enterprise under the Ministry of the Interior. It was etablished on August 1, 1958 under the Metropolitan Electricity Authority Act 1958. This organization was responsible for generationg and selling electrical power in the metropolitan area until 1961. The electricity generating plant was then transferred to Yanhee Electricity Authority, which was later renamed as Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand.
Related Channels: Optical Networking, China

China's Huawei to deploy the largest HSPA Network in Middle East and North Africa
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd, (“Huawei”), a leader in providing next generation telecommunications network solutions for operators around the world, announced that the Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (“Etisalat”) has selected Huawei as its major supplier for the construction of its nationwide UMTS/HSPA network.
Under the contract, Huawei will provide the new generation UMTS equipment including more than one thousand Node-B base stations for the construction of a nationwide (UMTS/ HSPA) network, which will be the first HSPA network based on Iub/IP (Interface UMTS B/ Internet Protocol) transmission in Middle East and North Africa. Being a fast developing multinational operator, Etisalat has networks covering more than 14 countries including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. Huawei has been working with Etisalat since December 2003 for the launch of its commercial 3G services in the UAE. The 3-year partnership has laid a strong foundation for further collaboration between Etisalat and Huawei for the construction of its UMTS/HSPA network in the UAE.
“The UAE HSPA network has a significant strategic implication to Etisalat. It sets the ground for global expansion of our 3G development,” said Nasser Salim, General Manager, Etisalat Network Planning. “Huawei’s innovative solutions offer us the competitive advantage and will help us consolidate our leadership in the global 3G marketplace. At Etisalat, we are committed to providing the best 3G experience for our customers.”
"Huawei is pleased to work with Etisalat as its major supplier for its UMTS/HSPA network," said Wang Jiading, Vice President, Huawei Technologies Middle East and North Africa Operations. "We are committed to helping Etisalat build a quality UMTS/HSPA network, and create maximum value for our customers through innovative solutions and services."
Related Channels: Wireless, China

CDG: CDMA2000 is expanding rapidly in China, the world's fastest-growing mobile phone market
The CDMA Development Group (CDG) announced that CDMA2000(r) is expanding rapidly in China, the world's fastest-growing mobile phone market. China Unicom's steady subscriber growth, differentiation with new value-added data services, strategic partnership with Korea's leading operator, SK Telecom (SKT), and the potential for obtaining additional spectrum, will enable China to become both a benchmark and showcase for all of the advantages that CDMA2000 has to offer.
"China is a proving ground for the very latest in wireless technology," said Perry LaForge, executive director of the CDG. "With its unsurpassed performance and two- to three-year lead over competing technologies, CDMA2000 has emerged as the most compelling choice for operators around the globe who want to get their 3G networks up and running as soon as possible."
Related Channels: China, Wireless

China's TD-SCDMA trial is going very well
The Chinese-developed TD-SCDMA standard is currently being trialed in Shanghai, Beijing, Qingdao, Baoding and Xiamen. The maturity of the technology will be a factor in deciding China‘s 3G future.
"The trial is going very well and TD-SCDMA is in its final pre-commercialization stages," said Wang Jing, secretary-general of the TD-SCDMA Forum.
Wang said that the technology has proved that it can be commercially deployed and the government was expected to release the result of the trial soon.
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Shanghai-based RDA Microelectronics debuts first RF chip for TD-SCDMA
RDA Microelectronics, a Shanghai-based communications chip maker, has lately released a RF (Radio Frequency) chip, the world's first one tailored for TD-SCDMA, the nation's home-grown 3G (third generation mobile communications) standard.
Like baseband chips, the RF chip is also made by core technologies for 3G terminals, introduced Song Boyang, assistant to the company's president. Its debut marks that China has finally gained its own chip technologies to make terminals in the TD industry.
The chip is expected to start mass production next January or February. RDA is aimed to bring the chip into commercial operation before the 3G licenses are issued next year.
Currently, RDA is seeking cooperation with core members of the nation's TD industry alliance, including baseband chip makers like Datang Telecom Technology Co., Ltd. and Spreadtrum Communications Inc., system suppliers such as ZTE and some mobile phone manufacturers.
Related Channels: China, Wireless, Chips

UMTS Forum Chairman calls for early launch of 3G in China
With the launch date for 3G mobile communication services in China still unclear, UMTS Forum Chairman is calling on the Chinese government to issue licenses quickly so that both operators and manufacturers can benefit.
Spectrum and capacity advantages will make 3G a valuable tool for providing better and cheaper rural coverage, thus encouraging operators to expand mobile services to western and rural areas of China, said Jean-Pierre Bienaime, chairman of UMTS Forum, at a forum in China Friday.
UMTS Forum, which is promoting the European WCDMA 3G standard, co-organized the China Mobile Broadband Communications Leadership Seminar with TD-SCDMA Forum, an organization promoting the Chinese TD-SCDMA standard.
3G‘s higher voice capacity will mitigate spectrum availability issues in big cities and help deliver a low cost voice service, said Bienaime.
After years of rapid growth, China now has 443 million mobile subscribers, leaving little room for further expansion in urban areas. Telecom operators are now focusing on rural areas where low cost is a key factor.
"Without 3G licenses, Chinese operators will have to continue to invest heavily in outdated technologies such as 2G and PHS (personal handy phone system)," said Bienaime.
He predicted that if China issues the 3G licenses no later than the first quarter next year, operators would have enough time to plan a phased deployment of 3G and provide a mature 3G network for the 2008 Olympics.
The expert said that launching 3G now will give Chinese telecom equipment providers an opportunity to become major international players by enlarging their share of both domestic and international markets.
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Shanghai Media Group (SMG) and China Mobile to lower mobile TV fees from November 1
Shanghai Media Group (SMG) and China Mobile will soon lower the fees for mobile TV services.
"We will lower the fees for mobile TV starting from November 1," said Wu Chunlei, CEO, Shanghai Dragon Mobile Media (DMTV), a subsidiary of SMG, at the China Mobile TV/Video Forum 2006 in Shanghai.
DMTVoperates mobile data service with a specialty on streaming media services. Local portal TheThirdMedia.com reported in mid-September that DMTV and China Mobile would lower the monthly fee for their ‘Oriental Dream World‘ mobile TV service from RMB 300 (USD 37.5) to RMB 10 (USD 1.25) starting from September 20.
The fee adjustment did not happen at that time because DMTV "didn‘t coordinate well with China Mobile", Wu said. DMTV‘s fee cut falls in line with the opinion expressed by the speakers at the forum that mobile TV should be more affordable than cable TV for subscribers to accept it. Cable TV charges RMB 12 (USD 1.5) monthly on average in China. DMTV‘s new monthly charge of RMB 10 (USD 1.25) falls into a price range that is obviously much more agreeable than the former.
DMTV will soon merge with SMG‘s other subsidiary New Media to jointly develop the new media business, according to Wu.
"We will work in the same office starting from next week," Wu said.
China Mobile has a very large number of subscribers and is in an advantageous position to reap profits from advertising.
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China's SARFT: Chinese broadcasters must use STiMi as the mobile TV standard
Broadcasters in China‘s emerging mobile TV industry have been ordered to use STiMi as the mobile TV standard. STiMi stands for Satellite Terrestrial Interactive Multi-service Infrastructure.
The national broadcast regulator, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), told mobile TV broadcasters that they must use the STiMi standard developed by its own researchers, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
"The introduction of STiMi, which is China‘s independent intellectual property right, demonstrates that China has world-leading technology in the field, and will not have to submit to the standards of other countries," an unidentified researcher was quoted as saying.
China is trying to develop its own standards for mobile communications and other technology, hoping to reduce reliance on foreign know-how and give its own companies a competitive edge.
China‘s high-tech companies could benefit if the country‘s systems were adopted as world standards, because they would have a head start in using it and could license technology abroad.
China has 433 million mobile phone users and is regarded as one of the world‘s most promising markets for mobile TV and other value-added wireless services.
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Top Story: China's SARFT launches the occupation standard for China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting (CMMB) with Shanghai, Beijing and Guangdong as trial hot spots
China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) formally launched the standard for China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting (CMMB) on October 24.
CMMB standard includes transmission technology, video, audio, channel transmission and agreement etc. As the core part of the standard, transmission technology has basically been confirmed to adopt Stimi standard instead of technology standard based on wireless mobile communication network of telecom operation. In fact, SARFT assigned to draft CMMB standard in May according to the current research achievements of Stimi. It also asked to finish the draft before the end of this year.
The standard, launched by SARFT, is recommended occupation standard instead of national standard. Standards can be classified into national standard, occupation standard, provincial standard and enterprise standard. Their effectiveness decreases gradually. Of the four standards, national standard and occupation standard can be respectively divided into compulsory standard and recommended standard.
Strictly speaking, recommended occupation is not forceful. However, the competent departments sometimes carry out recommended standard in the form of occupation regulation. Under this situation, it will be forceful.
The 2006 comprehensive report on hand-held TV set showed that China's hand-held TV set market was in the starting phase. The hand-held TV set market based on wireless digital broadcasting network is still in a trial phase. The current trial hot spots are Shanghai, Beijing and Guangdong.
Related Channels: China, Video/IPTV

Hong Kong to issue first CDMA 3G licence in 2008
Hong Kong will issue its first Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) 3G licence no later than November 2008, when the only one allowing a 2G network based on the US technology expires, ensuring that international roaming customers will continue to be covered. China Unicom in Mainland has 35 million CDMA subscribers.
This was announced as the government launched a public consultation on a proposed policy framework for managing the city's radio spectrum.
Hong Kong's mobile service is dominated by European-based standards -- the 2G Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and 3G Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA). The city issued four WCDMA licences in 2001.
The only Hong Kong licence for a CDMA network is 2G, held by Hutchison Telecom, which is little used. It will expire in November 2008 and free up space on the spectrum for the 3G service.
"We need to solve the issue before the licence expires in 2008, to avoid the vacuum for CDMA roaming users in Hong Kong," said Au Man-ho, director-general of the Office of the Telecommunications Authority.
The auction for the new 15-year CDMA-based 3G licence will be launched next year and existing 3G operators will be allowed to join the bidding. The price for the new licence should be lower than the first 3G licences, each issued for about HK$1.3 billion.
"Based on the existing market, the price of the new licence won't be the same as the existing one," Mr Au said.
The government first broached issuing the new licence in 2004, but was faced by fierce criticism from the industry, especially the initial 3G players, who were then struggling to get their respective networks on the air.
"The 3G services attract over one million users and the WCDMA technology is getting mature. The operators have no reason to argue that a new CDMA player will hurt their 3G business," said Mr Au.
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China Mobile ZheJiang picks Nokia for GSM expansion
Nokia, a leading mobile network supplier in China, has signed a GSM expansion contract with China Mobile Group ZheJiang Co., Ltd (ZheJiang) in China. The contract, valued at approximately USD 43 million, will enhance ZheJiang's operational efficiency and boost GSM coverage in both urban and rural areas of the Zhejiang province.
Under the contract, Nokia will supply its radio and core network, including the Nokia MSC Server mobile softswitch as well as an online Home Location Register (HLR) subscriber database backup feature. Nokia will also supply its multivendor, multitechnology Nokia NetAct(TM) network and service management system, including Nokia NetAct(TM) Traffica. In addition, Nokia will provide ZheJiang with network planning, implementation, and integration services. The deliveries have already started.
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Top Story: China Unicom and China Mobile are testing their own IM (Instant Messaging) software with Shanghai as the trial hot spot
China Unicom, China's second largest mobile telecom carrier, is testing its own instant communications and messaging software and will formally launch it in the next few months.
China Unicom New Space, one of the affiliates of China Unicom, which is engaged in value-added services (VAS), is responsible for developing and promoting this new software.
As it is under testing, the name of the software and its detailed cost to consumers has not yet been disclosed. However, local media report that the software has complete functions including multi-terminal log-in, free and unlimited short message sending, and group short message sending.
Tong Xiaoyu, general manager of China Unicom's Value-added Service Department says that China Unicom will promote the new software on both its G net and C net services.
There are currently many instant communications software on the Chinese market, such as QQ, MSN, POPO, and ICQ. China Mobile has also announced plans to launch its own IM service no later than the end of this year.
IM (Instant Messaging) has been one of the main battlefields of service providers, and mobile QQ and mobile MSN win a huge market among mobile phone users. However, with China Mobile's debut of "Fetion" in Shanghai, the Chinese wireless IM will be faced with a new round of reshuffling possibly. China Mobile is the largest mobile carrier in the world.
The Chinese IM market will hit CNY 2.58 billion in 2006, and mobile IM business is even considered a new "gold mine" in the future 3G era. At present, Tencent holds over 60% share of the market through its QQ, and Microsoft around 20% through MSN.
Besides Shanghai, China Mobile's Fetion is open for beta test in some other provinces and cities. At present, the software is still free of charge for users, which means that users have no need to pay any fee for short messages sent through the business. But "Fetion Friend-making", one of the functions of the software, requires a service fee of CNY 5 per month.
After the commercial debut at the end of this year, the service fee will be CNY 5 per month, and the charge for voice chatting will be the same to the calling party and the called party, being CNY 0.25 per minute from 8:00 to 18:00 and CNY 0.15 per minute from 18:00 to 8:00 next day. The roaming fee is CNY 0.5 per minute.
Related GEF Story in the China Channel:  China Unicom and China Mobile to launch IM products
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China's mobile phone users number reached 443.15 million at the end of September
China's telecommunications industry revenue in the January-September period totaled CNY479.9 billion, up 11.3% from a year earlier, China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII) said.
MII said there were 443.15 million mobile phone users in China at the end of September, up 49.75 million from the end of last year. China has the world's largest mobile-phone market by users.
Fixed-line users totaled 369.31 million, up 18.86 million over the same period.
At the end of September, there were 33.9 mobile phones for every 100 people in China, up from 32.7 at the end of August, and 28.3 fixed-line telephones per 100, up from 28 over the same period, said MII.
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Intel's Chengdu chip plant starts production of 65nm chipset, putting pressure on rival AMD
Intel held the ceremony for celebrating the starting of the second phase project of Intel's Chengdu works on October 25.
Intel president & CEO Paul Otellini attended the ceremony and expressed the Chengdu chip plant will contribute a lot to the worldwide success of Intel with the help of its most advanced technology of 65 nm manufacturing process.
Compared with Intel, the rival AMD is in the dry tree. The expansion project of its Suzhou works is still under way, and even expected to be finished by 2008.
The technical transition of Intel's production lines from 90 nm to 65 nm will be finished within this year. Next year, the chip maker will head to the 45 nm technology.
Related Channels: Chips, China

China's ZTE to build NGN gateway exchange for Russia's Multiregional Transit Telecom (MTT)
ZTE Corporation, the fastest growing global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, has won a contract to build an NGN gateway exchange for Russia's Multiregional Transit Telecom (MTT). With over 90 million subscribers, MTT is one of the two telecom operators in Russia that offer international telecommunications services and is ranked in the top 500 of Russia's largest enterprises.
Following ZTE's great success in building China Telecom's DC1 distant network and international gateway exchange in Shanghai, and Mongolia's international gateway exchange, this contract represents another significant customer success for ZTE in the high-end NGN telecoms field.
Under the terms of this agreement, ZTE will apply its mature NGN technology to expand the international gateway exchange so it can smoothly communicate with other NGN-based international gateway exchanges around the world.
"ZTE has been investing in the research and development of NGN technology since 1998 and established China's first commercial trial station in 2001. The maturity of ZTE's NGN-based gateway exchange has been demonstrated by many successful projects such as China Telecom's international gateway exchange in Shanghai and other commercial projects around the world," said Mr. Huang Dabin, deputy general manager from ZTE's network department. "ZTE has also been ranked the No.1 manufacturer in feasibility tests of international gateway exchanges organised by China Telecom."
Over 600 sets of ZTE's NGN equipment have been deployed around the world, assisting 120 million subscribers to enjoy the advantages of NGN technology and strengthening ZTE's leading role in the NGN field.
Related Channels: VoIP, Optical Networking, China

Huawei participates in the MSF FMC Interoperability Event at GMI 2006
Huawei Technologies ("Huawei"), a leader in providing next generation telecom