[July 13, 2010] China Telecom Speeding up Expansion in CDMA Market Tweet DONGGUAN, Jul 13, 2010 (SinoCast Daily Business Beat via COMTEX) -- China Telecom, one of the Big Three telecom operators in the country, is speeding up rollout of CDMA mobile phones as part of a planned business expansion in the 3G era. The telecom operator released eight models of CDMA products in cooperation with a group of mobile phone makers at the e-surfing 3G Internet Mobile Phone Fair at the end of June, targeting customers in all market segments. Statistics showed that China Telecom saw its user number expand by more than 3 million every month in 2010, a trend that is likely to push the figure up to 100 million by the end of the year. The Beijing-based company, which is expected to witness over 40 million CDMA terminals in the market in the entire 2010, will possibly turn out to be the biggest CDMA network operator in the world by user number. At present, nearly 100 models of EVDO mobile phones are already available in the market, with the number of models under the test of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) topping the other models. The Beijing-based company managed to double its user number less than two years after taking over the CDMA network from China Unicom in the earlier telecom industry reshuffle, said Perry LaForge, founder and executive director of the CDMA Development Group (CDG) in an earlier interview. China Telecom is very likely to grow into the biggest CDMA network operator in the world within this year, taking its monthly net user growth of 3 million into consideration, according to market observers. At the moment, the No. One CDMA network operator in the world is Verizon Wireless, a US-based company with around 80 million users. China Telecom has poured as much as CNY 100 billion into the upgrade, expansion, and optimization of network by far, part of its efforts to improve network quality and better services for customers. Notably, China Telecom announced a plan to roll out a raft of smartphones priced at less than CNY 2,000 in a bid to further its footing in the fast-growing 3G market. By far, the company has joined hands with a bevy of renowned CDMA terminal makers such as QUALCOMM, Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM), Samsung, Motorola, Inc. (NYSE: MOT), Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd., and ZTE Corporation (SZSE: 000063 and SEHK: 0763). (USD 1 = CNY 6.83) Source: www.ittime.com.cn (July 13, 2010) [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]