Companies eye CDMA tender - Brief Article

Business Asia, Feb 11, 2000

Korean mobile phone makers are confident of being included on a list of prime candidates for the first major project to commercialise CDMA wireless technology in China.

The China United Telecommunications Corp. (China Unicom) received tenders last November from 13 companies, including Samsung, Hyundai and LG, for the world's largest-scale CDMA project to construct four million cables in the latter half of this year.

China's second-largest telecoms company was to announce three to four prime bidders by early this year, but the decision was being delayed due to the complicated procedure of receiving government approval, sources close to the situation say.

However, government and industry sources expect the project will pick up speed once Qualcomm finalises deals with China Unicom over adopting the CDMA mode.

Qualcomm, which holds patents to most CDMA technology, is engaged in last-minute negotiations with Unicom over licensing royalties. China is demanding lower licensing fees in return for opening the market to CDMA technology.

China currently uses the GSM standard prevalent in Europe. The country had 43 million mobile phone users last year and the figure is expected to jump to 70 million this year.