> When China decided to put in place a telephone
> infrastructre they went wireless, simply because
> it was the cheapest and fastest way to provide
> access to such a large teritory
The thing is.. they didn't decide. The Chinese gov't focused on fixed line development; hence a lot of Chinese manufacturers provided cut-throught prices on last mile copper access and even DSL/broadband - but wireless was completely out of the dream of the Chinese technocrats planning 5 years ahead.
In 1998, MPT (before MII) predicted that China would have 30 million GSM subscribers by the end of 2000. It was 85.3 million!
And just recently, the Chinese mobile phone manufacturers became competitive; and in the mobile systems space, Ericsson, Nokia, Siemens, Motorola and Alcatel controls more than 90%.
No, it was accidently and driven by consumers.. not by China or their Government
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> When China decided to put in place a telephone > infrastructre they went wireless, simply because > it was the cheapest and fastest way to provide > access to such a large teritory The thing is.. they didn't decide. The Chinese gov't focused on fixed line development; hence a lot of Chinese manufacturers provided cut-throught prices on last mile copper access and even DSL/broadband - but wireless was completely out of the dream of the Chinese technocrats planning 5 years ahead. In 1998, MPT (before MII) predicted that China would have 30 million GSM subscribers by the end of 2000. It was 85.3 million! And just recently, the Chinese mobile phone manufacturers became competitive; and in the mobile systems space, Ericsson, Nokia, Siemens, Motorola and Alcatel controls more than 90%. No, it was accidently and driven by consumers.. not by China or their Government