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Analysis: mobile number portability to trigger competition and growth in telecomBEIJING, Nov 05, 2010 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- China's Ministry of Industry and Inform ation Technology (MIIT) has formally issued a document to the country' s big three operators, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, w hich clearly expresses that the "mobile number portability commercial trial" will be launched on November 22, in the city of Tianjin and Hai nan, which means the eagerly awaited mobile number portability is unde rway. --Mobile number portability to begin on November 22 The MIIT issued a document, Letter 508 of the Telecommunications Au thority, on Thursday. According to the document, with the efforts of the telecom operator s, communications authorities, research institutes, and the MIIT, the network adjustment, platform construction, engineering tests in Tianji n and Hainan have been readied for a mobile number portability commerc ial trial. The first trial started smoothly, so mobile number portabil ity will be formally launched in Tianjin, Hainan on November 22. Mobile number portability means that a mobile user can change carri ers and enjoy the various services a new carrier provides without havi ng to change its phone number. Since January 2009, the three operators, China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom have been working on the internal network reconfigura tion and technical commissioning, and also conducted inter-operability testing under the organization of the Ministry. --Different policies for Tianjin and Hainan Tianjin and Hainan will implement different policies to implement t heir mobile number portability commercial trials. In Tianjin, China Telecom and China Unicom's 2G users, 3G users, Ch ina Mobile's 2G users will be able to switch their numbers to China Mo bile's TD-SCDMA network, and they also can switch to each other; but s ection 157/188 users, China Mobile's TD-SCDMA special number, will not be able to switch to another network. In Hainan, China Telecom and China Unicom's 2G users, 3G users, Chi na Mobile's 2G users will all be able to switch to China Mobile's TD-S CDMA network; China Mobile's section 157/188 users will not be able to switch to another network; however, China Mobile's 2G users will be a ble to switch to China Telecom and China Unicom. --Triggering competition and growth in telecom industry Mobile number portability will go nationwide "at the proper time," the MIIT said previously. Industry insiders believe that mobile number portability, which wil l take effect nationwide after trials in Tianjin and Hainan provinces, will trigger competition and growth in the telecommunications industr y. China Unicom and China Telecom are expected to see greater benefits from the policy than their rival, China Mobile, the world's largest m obile carrier in terms of user numbers. China Telecom and China Unicom, Apple's domestic partner for the iP hone, are expected to benefit as the telecommunications fee will likel y drop due to more competition among the rivals as they vie for custom ers. If China had number portability, many China Mobile customers woul d be likely to switch to China Unicom because of the iPhone 4, and at the same time, as China Unicom's 3G technology is more mature, more pe ople would be likely to choose it. Meanwhile, China Mobile is expanding its 3G network nationwide to w oo users. The carrier had a total of 15.279 million 3G subscribers by the end of September, and the end of this year its TD-SCDMA network sh ould cover the entire nation. According to an earlier report the country's telecom industry regis tered 2,274.89 billion yuan in business volume in January-September 20 10, up 20.8 percent year on year. Its main operating turnovers totaled 667.51 billion yuan in the period, up 6.8 percent. The number of the country's mobile phone subscribers increased 86.0 87 million in the first three quarters of 2010, boosting the total num ber to 833.3 million, and the number of TD-SCDMA users reached 15 mill ion during the same period. (Edited by Gaoyuan, [email protected]) |