Proxim Corporation, a leader in wireless networking equipment for Wi-Fi and wide area networks, announced recently that Guangdong Unicom, a provincial subsidiary of China Unicom Limited, has selected Proxim’s Tsunami MP point-to-multipoint broadband wireless products to establish China’s largest high capacity wireless network, delivering Voice over IP and Internet connections throughout China’s Guangdong province.
NetGear has teamed with Legend Group in China and Softbank BB in Japan to sell Wi-Fi products, an effort to increase sales in Asia–the world’s second largest market for Wi-Fi networking gear. The company sees the Asian market as a major opportunity to improve its position worldwide. Japan, China and South Korea are the top three countries in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of gear sales, according to research firm Synergy Research Group.
Mobile operator M1 of Singapore has awarded Nokia a contract to supply equipment and services for the second phase of its WCDMA 3G network rollout. In addition, the deal includes GSM/GPRS equipment to enhance GSM coverage and GPRS capacity. The deal follows successful rollout of Phase 1 WCDMA 3G network and continued GSM subscriber growth and increase demand in data traffic.
Looking to cement its current lead in the China cellphone market, Motorola said Monday that it is considering tie-ups with Chinese firms to develop 3G handsets that use China’s TD-SCDMA standard. In a telephone interview with Reuters, Motorola’s director of global strategy on 3G, Bob Schukai said that if China does adopt the domestically-developed TD-SCDMA, Motorola’s best business plan would be working through local partnership deals to draw on local expertise.
This could be 3G’s biggest nightmare. Claiming to have a truly foolproof technology to switch cellphone users to and from WiFi, Calypso Wireless has done a $500 million deal with a Chinese phone network, due to roll out over the next three years. It is also “in negotiations with one of the largest cable companies in the US” to use this technology. And field trials in four (or more) European countries are due to start in January.
Five telecom terminal makers will soon get permission to join an alliance of companies involved in the development of China’s home-grown wireless communication standard. “We have singled them out from 17 applicants this year to strengthen our alliance,” said Yang Hua, secretary-general of the TD-SCDMA Alliance. Established in October last year, the alliance was launched by eight domestic companies to develop the standard.
