- At China Mobile's 2010 annual meeting held on January 13, China Mobile's CEO Wang Jianzhou said that the company plans to achieve pan-China TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) network coverage in 2010, one year earlier than originally planned, China's Beijing Morning Post reported on January 14. Wang stated that the company has earmarked 150 billion RMB (US$22.1 billion; US$1= 6.8 RMB) for the deployment of an additional 70,000 base stations during the period 2009-2011. As of year-end 2009, the number of phone users subscribing to China Mobile's TD-SCDMA service reached 5.51 million and the number of TD-SCDMA devices available in the market totaled 266, including handsets, data cards, household gateways, netbook PCs, and e-books. With a total of 87,000 base stations being deployed, the TD-SCDMA network covered 70% of prefecture-level cities by year-end 2009.

 

- Since China launched 3G services in early 2009, the combined number of users subscribing to 3G services in China surpassed 15.0 million as of year-end 2009, the Sohu IT News reported on December 16, citing China's MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology). With a total of 325,000 base stations being set up, the combined investments made by the three leading Chinese telecom operators for the deployment of 3G networks in China totaled over 160 billion RMB (US$23.5 billion) as of year-end 2009.

 

- China Telecom recently launched three Smartphone models compatible with CDMA 2000 (Code Division Multiple Access 2000), EVDO (Evolution Data Only), CDMA, and GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications), as well as China's indigenous WAPI (Wireless Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure), providing users ubiquitous Internet access, the Xinhua News reported on January 11. Further details regarding these Smartphones, however, were not yet disclosed.