China Mobile (H.K.) Ltd., the world’s biggest mobile phone company by users, said its customers spent 16 percent less in the first half and the trend will persist as price competition intensifies with China Unicom Ltd. and other rivals. Net income fell in the second quarter from the previous three months for the first time since China Mobile went public in 1997, as discount services from Unicom and two fixed-line carriers drove down rates.
Looking to spread its wireless world into Asia, QUALCOMM Monday said it has signed a non- binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Asia Pacific Broadband Wireless Communications (APBW), the first operator in the region to commercialize 3G services using CDMA2000 technology.
While Asia Pacific Broadband Wireless Communication Inc. was celebrating its launch of the nation’s first 3G mobile services yesterday, telecom industry analysts said the high-speed mobile Internet service is not expected to become mainstream in the Taiwan market in the short term.
KTF Co, the No.2 mobile operator, said earnings fell about 4.5 percent in the second quarter of 2003 because of higher interest payments and one-off charges. Smaller rival LG Telecom saw its net profit plunge 57 percent because of higher operating costs.
China, the world’s largest market for cell phones, is aggressively developing a homegrown technology that can run the next generation of mobile telephone networks, challenging the traditional dominance of American and European companies. During the 1990s, as China spent $10 billion to build a national mobile telephone network, foreign companies reaped most of the rewards. Cisco Systems, Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia produced much of the equipment that runs the networks and many of the phones on them.
helloNetwork, the top developer of Java(TM)-based wireless streaming media technology, has partnered with Today Fast East Tone (FET), the third largest mobile carrier in Taiwan, to launch a new range of services which provide multimedia services to FET’s Bravo subscribers. These new services include downloadable movie clips and MTVs for a variety of different GPRS and JAVA enabled handsets.
