China's 3G licences may be issued after 2008 Olympics

May 31, 2007, 12:19 GMT



Beijing - China is likely to issue licences for third- generation, or 3G, mobile phones, only after a restructuring of its main service providers, the state-run Shanghai Securities News said on Thursday, possibly delaying the start of 3G services until after the 2008 Olympics.

The leading provider, China Mobile, is expected to gain fixed- line services under the restructuring, which is not scheduled to begin until October, the newspaper said.

The government approved the use of US and European standards for 3G mobile phones earlier this month, making it the only country to use three standards.

In addition to the Chinese-developed TD-SCDMA standard, the Information Industry Ministry's approval would also see Europe's WCDMA and the US CDMA2000 standards used, Chinese media reports said.

Earlier reports had said 3G licences would be issued in time for 3G services to be operating for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

The first licence was expected to be for TD-SCDMA, which China developed along with Germany's Siemens, analysts said.

With 480 million mobile phone users, China is the largest cellular phone market in the world. © 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur