14 DAY TRIAL // China Mobile, the largest wireless carrier in the country, and also the largest in the world based on the number of subscribers, is expected to reach a number of over 100 million 3G subscribers by 2011. During the 2009 Sino-Japan TD-SCDMA Collaboration Conference, Yang Hua, secretary general of the TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance, said that this was the 3G-subscriber base the carrier should reach within the following two years.
China Mobile started the deployment of its 3G network, based on the TD-SCDMA standard only this year, following the award of 3G licenses by the Chinese government to the three large carriers in the country, China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom. As for the TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance, it is an organization focused on the promotion of TD-SCDMA cooperation between China and Japan.
A series of statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology showed that, since the starting of the first trials of the TD-SCDMA technology back in April, 2008, the number of users for the standard topped 1.2 million. The second phase of the TD-SCDMA roll-out has been already completed, and 38 cities around the country can enjoy access to the technology. Moreover, it seems that the third phase of the process, which should offer connectivity to more than 238 cities, is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
Li Yizhong, China's minister of industry and information technology, stated a few months ago that the number of China Mobile's 3G subscribers was expected to reach 80 million during the following two years. Moreover, Lou Qinjian, vice-minister of industry and information technology, is also reported to have stated that the number of TD-SCDMA subscribers in China should reach ten million before the year's end.
However, the reach of 3G networks in China is only in its early stages. The three carriers have each received licenses to deliver networks based on various standards, including TD-SCDMA, CDMA and WCDMA. China Mobile, the only carrier to deliver a 3G network based on TD-SCDMA, announced that it planned on spending US$8.6 billion on the deployment in 2009.