All three China operators to be awarded TD-LTE licences

Speculation over China 4G licensing continues to run hot. The most likely scenario is that China Mobile will be issued with its licence first, and not until toward the end of the year (zh) when its network is  commercial-ready.

But, according to one widely-reposted report Tuesday (zh), all three operators are to be awarded TD-LTE licences. If they wish to build out FDD-LTE networks, they will have to apply for a separate licence.

The obvious impact of this scenario, if true, would be to give the home-grown technology - and China Mobile - a head start.  But it may perhaps be designed also to put pressure on China Telecom, the smallest mobile player. 

Whereas W-CDMA operators China Unicom clearly plans to upgrade to FDD-LTE, China Telecom, which runs an EV-DO network, is pressured by the enormous 4G capital cost and the  deeper pockets of its rivals.

Speaking at the company's annual results announcement in March, China Telecom CEO Wang Xiaochu expressed a preference for FDD because of the lower equipment cost. But he also held open the door of using the China Mobile network if he couldn't obtain an FDD licence. 

In any event, there's no suggestion Unicom or Telecom will be forced to actually build a TD network. They will simply have to wait awhile. Given that they are at least a year behind China Mobile in 4G preparations, that is no handicap.

China Mobile delays giant 4G tender

China Mobile’s massive TD-LTE tender has been delayed because the operator can’t decide whether to build a new network or upgrade from 3G.

The tender, for 200,000 base stations and 100 cities, was originally planned to start in April. Estimates of its value range wildly from $6.75 billion to as much as $30 billion.

However, executives are said to be undecided whether to buid primarily as an upgrade from the existing TD-SCDMA network using F-band spectrum (1880-1920), or to roll out new base stations using the D-band (2570-2620).

It is more than an arcane technical issue. An upgrade would favour the incumbent TD-SCDMA vendors – Huawei, ZTE and small state-owned player Datang Mobile. A new build would put all vendors on a level playing field.

According to 21^st Century Business Herald (posted here on Sina Tech), the tender was supposed to have been issued in April, but will probably not be called until June.

Ericsson China executive vice-president Eric Feng told a briefing in Guangzhou yesterday China Mobile hadn’t yet issued tender documents because executives “still haven’t reached final consensus.”

So far China Mobile has rolled out limited scale TD-LTE trial networks in 13 cities, with contracts allocated among five vendors. The 2013 network is its major commercial-scale buildout ahead of formal launch, which is expected to be in the second half of the year.

Feng told journalists that the trials showed that an upgrade from 3G would suffer from interference and limited network functionality.

His recommendation was pretty much to script. Given these issues, and China Mobile’s tight timetable, Ericsson believed that the “new build is the best option,” Feng said. 

China Mobile iPhone deal by Q3?

Pretty much everyone who watches Apple and/or China Mobile expects the world’s most valuable company and the biggest mobile operator on the planet to stirke an iPhone deal some time this year.

Each for its own reasons needs the other more than ever, while the convergence of 4G standards means the elimination of the TD-SCDMA barrier.

This story in the respected Southern Metro Daily newspaper (Ch)  thus isn’t news, and it isn't definititive, but confirms that China Mobile is thinking along the same lines.

A China Mobile source says the company believes that with Qualcomm’s new convergence chipsets, Apple will no longer have to make standalone phones for Mobile’s standalone 3G network, enabling the pair to work together.

At the earliest, that will happen in the third quarter when the sixth generation iPhone is likely to be released. Qualcomm’s chipset offers five modes - TDD FDD LTE, W-CDMA and TS-SCDMA, and GSM/GPRS – in ten spectrum bands.

China Mobile has built out a trial TD-LTE network in 13 cities and will expand that to more than 100 cities this year. It has begun commercial trials in Hangzhou and Shenzhen. 4G licences have not been issued, but reportedly China Mobile will be the first to obtain one (Ch)  in October.

China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA network doesn’t allow roaming and offers a limited handset choice, causing it steadily lose ground to its rivals in 3G, where it accounts for just 41% of customers. Both its rivals, China Unicom and China Telecom, offer the iPhone.

If Apple and China Mobile do reach a deal, the signs are good. In Guangdong, China’s richest province, China Mobile already has almost as many iPhone users plugged into its 2G network as China Unicom has on its 3G network.

Bids are in for China's first TD-LTE tender

Nine vendors have submitted bids for China Mobile’s first commercial TD-LTE tender, according to Chinese press.

As well as the big five firms Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Huawei, Nokia Siemens and ZTE, lesser-known local players Datang, Potevio, Fiberhome and New Postcom are also taking part.

Samsung’s networks group, which had been invited to bid, did not submit a proposal by the August 16 deadline, Sina Tech reported Tuesday.

In this first stage of network rollout, China Mobile is planning to deploy 20,000 base stations in 13 cities: Beijing, Chengdu, Fuzhou, Guangzhou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Ningbo, Qingdao, Shanghai, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Xiamen.

Most of the bidders were offering their own equipment, eschewing OEM gear, Sina said.

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