14 DAY TRIAL // The 3G services in China seem to have registered a pretty impressive take up in 2009, as the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced in a statement on Wednesday. According to the announcement, the number of 3G users in China reached 13.25 million at the end of last year, showing that customers are greatly interested in enjoying fast Internet access from their mobile phones.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the total number of 3G users in China also includes a number of 5.51 million users that adopted TD-SCDMA, a locally developed 3G technology that is being deployed in the country by China Mobile. The carrier, as many of you might already know, is the largest in the country, and also the largest in the world by number of subscribers.
According to a recent article on totaltele.com, (via dailymobile) China Mobile Ltd., actually had only a number of 3.41 million users that adopted the TD-SCDMA standard by the end of 2009, at least this is what data on the carrier's website shows. However, the rest of the users might come from “its unlisted parent, China Mobile Communications Corp.,” which says that the total number of TD-SCDMA users topped 5 million at the end of the last year.
The announcement from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also shows that China Telecom Corp., has had a number of around 5 million 3G users at the end of December. However, it seems that the wireless carrier does not disclose the actual figure. As for the third large carrier in the country, China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd., it announced earlier this week that it accounted for a number of around 2.74 million 3G users at the end of 2009.
For what it's worth, the growth of 3G usage in China seems to be pretty impressive. In case some of you might not remember, the Chinese government granted 3G licenses for the country's carriers only at the end of 2008 / beginning of 2009, and all three operators have been struggling to deploy 3G networks to offer enhanced services to their customers. The roll-outs are expected to continue in the future too, and should also be accompanied by the launch of 3G-capable mobile phones.