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3G Phone Service in China?


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Posted
China will discontinue PHS, a low-end wireless phone service that once boasted 100 million users, by 2011 to clear the airwaves for its homegrown 3G wireless service, TD-SCDMA

Quite optimistic to think that TD-SCDMA is going to need it, I reckon . . .

Posted

Indeed... apparently this news was supposed to be a "secret":

``The Ministry Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has "officially criticized" China Mobile for leaking news to the press yesterday that regulators ordered [closure of Xiaolingtong] by the end of 2011 [...] MIIT was planning to delay the announcement until the transfer had reached a certain size...''

http://www.jlmpacificepoch.com/newsstories?id=140575_0_5_0_M

Perhaps MIIT aren't so sure of TD-SCDMA's adoption rate, either. :D

Posted

Oh, by the end of 2011? That's even sillier. I've no doubt there are better uses for the spectrum, and PHS is pretty much obsolete now 'real' mobile tariffs and handsets are so much cheaper, but surely by December 2011 we're going to have . . . ooooh, I don't know . .. perhaps a home-grown 4G standard? That maybe even works?

Posted

Canceling PHS, eh? Ha ha, there goes Willcom's dreams of selling XGPHS technology to China! Now if Taiwan and Thailand will pull out of PHS and stop beating the dead horse.

I'm looking forward to see what happens with TD-SCDMA. I hope China will have success in developing it. Of course then we'll have to listen to Ericsson's and Nokia-Siemens' belly-aching like with CDMA2000 back in the day.

  • 4 months later...
Posted

So is anyone actually using any of the new 3G services? They're being advertised quite heavily here in Beijing - at least at the bus stops I use . . .

Posted

I've been using China Unicom's 3G network for about 2 months now in Changsha. It's been reliable and fast. I was previously on China Mobile and the difference between 3G and Edge is significant.

Posted

Which frequencies does China Unicom support? I would assume it's what HTC calls the Europe/Asia bands (i.e. 2100MHz/900MHz), but I can't find it on the English internet. Anyone have any idea?

EDIT: Spoke too soon: This phone is, I think, advertised as a 3G phone, and it only has 2100/900, so I guess we can safely say that China is running 2100/900 at the very least. EDIT 2: Or they're running something a little odd, like 2100/850, I guess. Also, the link doesn't actually go straight to the phone. Doh. However, most of the phones list 2100/900.

Posted (edited)

China Unicom has allocations at 1900 and 2100 MHz for 3G (i.e., WCDMA 2100), plus their existing 900 MHz allocation for cellular GSM (non-3G).

Edited by peekay
  • 2 weeks later...
Posted

Uhmm, still trying to figure out the best method for making international and domestic calls in China. I guess get a phone with GSM and then buy a SIM card in China? Or is it possible to buy a calling card and use any phone? I don't really follow the smart-phone craze.

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