There are currently 627 million mobile phone users in China. Two thirds of them are with China Mobile, twenty percent are with China Unicom, and the rest use CDMA technology provided by China Telecom. It's clear that China Mobile has taken control of 2G services. But 3G is providing new opportunities to all three companies.

3G communication provides multi-media operations like video calls, mobile TV and high-speed internet connections.

3G communication provides multi-media operations like video calls, mobile TV and high-speed internet connections. There are now three standards for 3G technology worldwide: WCDMA from Europe, CDMA 2000 from the US, and the Chinese-made TD-SCDMA. The country's Ministry of Information Technology will issue 3G licenses no later than early next year. China Mobile are expected to get TD-SCDMA, China Unicom will get WCDMA, while China Telecom will get CDMA 2000.

China Mobile says it will invest 110 billion yuan for the construction, maintenance and improvement of its 3G network, compared with 80 billion yuan from China Telecom, and 100 billion yuan from China Unicom. Analysts forecast the mobile market will be more equally shared in the 3G age.

(CCTV December 23, 2008)