- China Mobile will kick off the TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) expansion project, whereby a total of 978 additional TD-SCDMA base stations will be deployed in Beijing including urban and rural areas by December 30, in order to streamline the TD-SCDMA network in the said area, the Sina Tech News reported on July 21. Of the total base stations, 648 of which will be macrocell base station, 330 of which are indoor distributed base stations, along with 9,800 frequency carriers, three radio network controllers, and 45 newly-built towers. China Mobile is poised to float the tender for the TD-SCDMA network expansion project and companies who are interested in participating in this bidding process should submit applications before August 10, 2010, according to the same source.

 

Thus far, the results of the fourth round of network equipment purchase tender are yet to be released. In the fourth round tender, telecom operators will concentrate on network coverage expansion and improvement. Moreover, the number of base stations due to be established in the fourth round of network construction is expected to be about the same as the total of base stations deployed in the first three rounds.

 

China's MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) announced on July 21 the total investment made by three leading telecom operators in the area of 3G development in the first half of 2010, the Sina News reported. As of the end of June 2010, the number of 3G users totaled 25.2 million, 10.46 million of which were TD-SCDMA service users. In the first half of 2010, three Chinese telecom giants jointly invested 91.48 billion RMB (US$13.5 million; US$1= 6.8 RMB) for fixed assets, down 29% compared to the first half of 2009. Three operators totally invested 19.2 billion RMB (US$2.8 billion) in 3G networks in the first half; the full-year 3G investment totaled 160.9 billion RMB (US$23.7) in 2009, indicating a slowdown in the scale of 3G investment in the first half of 2010 compared to the same period of 2009.