- China Mobile and RIM (Research in Motion) jointly announced on December 8 that they will collaborate to offer BlackBerry Smartphones and BlackBerry Internet services in China, the chinabyte.com reported on December 8. Aside from large-sized enterprises, these Blackberry phones supporting both TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) and TD-LTE (TD-Long Term Evolution) standards will be available for SME (Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises) and individual users as well. These two firms stated that they will launch BlackBerry Internet service in 2010, but did not specify the promotion timetable for BlackBerry Smartphones.

 

- China's MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) revealed that China Mobile, which originally had access to 35 MHz of spectrum (1880 - 1900 MHz and 2010 - 2025 MHz), has been awarded an additional 50MHz of spectrum for its TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE networks, increasing China Mobile's total spectrum for 3G services to 85 MHz, the Beijing Morning Post reported on December 7. Meanwhile, China Unicom and China Telecom each have been granted access to 30 MHz of spectrum, with 1940 - 1955 MHz and 2130 - 2145 MHz being allocated to China Unicom and 1920 - 1935 MHz and 2110 - 2125 MHz to China Telecom), according to the same source. The Chinese government stated earlier that it would have a total of 155 MHz spectrum set aside exclusively for TD-SCDMA networks (1880 MHz - 1920 MHz, 2010 MHz - 2025 MHz and 2300 MHz - 2400 MHz).

 

- China Unicom announced on December 10 that sales of iPhones in China reached 100,000 units since its official rollout on October 30, 2009, indicating a gradual pick-up, the Xinhua News reported on December 11. However, the relatively high price tag of iPhones (between US$730 and US$1,020) and two-million gray market iPhones are expected to continue to pose important hurdles to iPhones sales in China.