118 Million 3G Subscribers in China by 2008 -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 6/16/2004
Last Visited: 6/18/2004
Inset is Tina Xu the analyst who wrote the report and quoted below.
With over 260 million mobile subscribers and more than 4 million new subscribers added every month in 2003, China is the largest cellular market in the world and a potential hotbed of 3G activities.With so many players involved from Chinese governments, equipment providers, handset manufacturers and content providers, many of them are very focused on making 3G happen.
However, according to the high-tech market research firm, for Chinese wireless operators, the expectation and scale of the promise of 3G has to be tempered accordingly.According to Tina Xu, an In-Stat/MDR analyst based in China, "Operators would prefer to pace infrastructure rollout with the resolution of technical issues, along with the availability of attractive and affordable handsets and relevant content, regulatory requirements."Yet, operators may have little choice in dictating the best time for service availability.According to Xu, "As in most regions of the world where cellular subscriber rates are rapidly increasing, the implementation of 3G in China is critical in order to accommodate a transformation of users' expectations from voice-centric communications to a more complex mixture of voice, wireless data and multimedia services."