China Telecom Accelerating CDMA Network Deployment

China Telecom is quickening its steps to deploy its newly-acquired CDMA business in a bid to lock users.

The mobile telecoms operator will finish building its CDMA networks in 324 cities across the country at the end of 2008, when its CDMA network is expected to accommodate 70 million users, said Xu Sui, deputy director for China Telecom network development operation, at a recent press conference.

China Telecom will continue expanding and upgrading the CDMA networks after the construction project is completed. The telecoms carrier previously revealed its plan to pour as much as CNY 80 billion into CDMA business and lift its CDMA user number to 100 million in the following three years.

China Unicom, the former CDMA business operator, shifted its focus to GSM network three years ago. No big investment flowed into the CDMA network in the past three years, said an executive for China Telecom network development operation.

Notably, with a steep decline in quality in the April- September period, the CDMA networks lagged behind China Unicom GSM networks in some cities and those of China Mobile, according to the executive.

Therefore, the new CDMA business operator will concentrate on network capacity expansion in urban areas and network coverage extension in rural areas, said Cai Ji, deputy director for China Telecom mobile network construction department.

In addition, China Telecom is likely to complete optimizing its CDMA networks in 44 key cities at the end of this year.

China Telecom, whose CDMA base stations are far less than the GSM base stations of China Mobile, will focus on suiting demand for wireless Internet services in 82 bigger cities throughout China, said Ms. Xu.

According to a scheme laid out earlier, China Telecoms CDMA network quality in key cities is expected to reach advanced level in the global telecoms industry at the end of 2008.

Moreover, China Telecom plans to integrate and connect its CDMA450 and the newly-gained 800Mhz CDMA networks to offer more diversified services to users. After that, it will launch dual frequency-CDMA terminals that support switches between two networks with one or two CDMA numbers, said an executive for China Telecom Technology Department. The once-fixed-line telecoms carrier is only authorized to use the existing CDMA450 network promote its fixed-line business in rural areas, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

Besides, China Telecom has finished technology test on CDMA 1X EVDO REV A, the 3G technology of CDMA network, according to the executive, declining to give further details.