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China Mobile to Roll Out 3G Service in 2003-2004: Report
China Mobile Telecommunications£¨Group£© Co, the parent company of China Mobile £¨Hong Kong£© Ltd, is planning to roll out its 3G £¨third-generation mobile £© service by the end of 2003 or early 2004, the Hong Kong Economic Times reported.
The paper quoted Li Yue, vice president of the company, as saying the company is likely to become one of China's first 3G service providers when the Ministry of Information Industry£¨MII £© gives out 3G licenses, according to today's China Daily.
MII has not yet decided which 3G standard to adopt in China.
Chinese mobile companies recently dreamed up TD-SCDMA, a 3G standard which parallels the WCDMA standard favored by European and Japanese companies and the CDMA 2000 standard developed by US-based Qualcom. Although the Chinese Government favors the home-made standard, Li said China Mobile planned to adopt the WCDMA standard because it represents the global mainstream.
China Mobile has conducted tests of its future WCDMA service in Shenzhen and Beijing, according to the newspaper.
At present, however, the company is concentrating on implementing GPRS, a technology also known as 2.5G which serves as a stepping stone between second and third generation mobile communications.
China Mobile's 2.5G trial service started in August, and the company expects to start offering commercial service at the beginning of next year.
China Mobile's sole rival, China Unicom, said it plans to launch its 2.5G CDMA service at the end of this year or early next year.
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