From Bloomberg:
China’s government may issue its first high-speed wireless license within six months, an executive said, opening up a market with more subscribers than the combined populations of the U.S. and Japan.
“We can’t drag on any longer if China expects to provide 3G services by the 2008 Olympics” in Beijing, Zuo Xunsheng, chief executive officer of China Netcom Group Corp. (Hong Kong) Ltd., the nation’s second-largest phone company, said in an interview yesterday at his Hong Kong office. The government hasn’t given a timeframe for issuing the licenses.
Companies may initially spend around $7 billion in China on equipment for third-generation networks that allow faster downloads of music and movies, according to Beijing-based Norson Telecom Consulting. China is the world’s largest mobile market by users, with 431.8 million subscribers at the end of July, government figures showed. [Full Text]
