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Zhongxing Canvasses for CDMA
Zhongxing Telecom Corp, one of the country's top four telecom manufacturers, urged the Government to reopen the suspended CDMA (code division multiple access) project in an effort to cultivate native industry.
"We hope the Government and related service operators will reconsider the CDMA system and resume the project as soon as possible," said Zhang Taifeng, chairman of Zhongxing Telecom.
Zhongxing is the biggest investor in the CDMA system among the country's leading telecom manufacturers.
The company introduced a full range, self-designed commercial CDMA mobile system in Shanghai last month, the first of its kind among domestic manufacturers.
Zhongxing began to develop the CDMA system in 1995. The company has reinforced its CDMA Research and Development investment since 1998 when the Government decided to build a nationwide CDMA network.
However, the reluctant attitude of China Unicom, the country's only authorized CDMA network operator, overshadowed the businesses of both US-based CDMA inventor Qualcomm and domestic telecom manufacturers.
Although China Unicom continued touting its CDMA project during a recent road show, its Initial Public Offering (IPO) Prospectus excluded mention of anything related to the company's CDMA project.
Zhang acknowledged the timing for construction of the CDMA project is relatively unfavorable, but emphasized the necessity.
"We must take measures to deal with the coming shortage of GSM network frequency resources, and a new CDMA network is the perfect option," said Zhang.
It's estimated that China's GSM frequency capacity will be saturated in 2005 as the number of Chinese mobile phone users witnessed double-digit growth in recent years.
Zhang said that another main reason for construction is to cultivate the country's native telecom industry.
China's mobile communications network is the widely adopted GSM system, leaving CDMA as a trial system operation in four cities.
Zhang said that foreign telecom manufacturers currently occupied a majority share of the country's GSM network market.
"We hold abilities to fetch back market penetration in the new CDMA network," said Zhang.
China's eight telecom companies last month signed a CDMA Property Rights Research and Development Agreement with QualComm.
As a QualComm license for research and development, the agreement also provides Chinese companies the option to secure a commercial license at any time during the agreement term.
Zhang refuted assertions that Qualcomm, the main holder of CDMA intellectual property rights (IPR), benefits most from China's CDMA project.
"Qualcomm will surely take charge over the CDMA IPR use, but it's like computer manufacturing which bundles Intel's Pentium chips and Microsoft's Windows systems," said Zhang.
Qualcomm reached a framework agreement with China Unicom in February to settle the basic IPR problems in China's market.
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