“China has awarded 4G licences to China Mobile Ltd, China Unicom Hong Kong Ltd and China Telecom Corp Ltd in a widely expected move that will benefit industry players from telecom equipment makers to Apple Inc.,” Paul Carsten reports for Reuters. “The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued licences for the TD-LTE standard to the country’s three carriers, according to the ministry’s website on Wednesday. The announcement only mentions licenses for the TD-LTE standard, not the FDD-LTE standard which is more widely adopted globally. The licences will mostly benefit China Mobile, whose 4G network is heavily based on TD-LTE.”
“China Mobile, the country’s largest mobile carrier by subscribers, has trailed behind its smaller rivals in attracting users to its home-grown 3G standard due to its poorer network service. It also does not have a distribution deal for Apple’s iconic iPhone,” Carsten reports. “China Mobile’s 3G subscribers accounted for just 23 percent of its total subscribers as of the end of October, compared with 42 and 54 percent for China Unicom and China Telecom, respectively. China is only expected to license FDD-LTE networks – China Unicom and China Telecom’s favoured standard – sometime next year.”
Carsten reports, “Now that China Mobile has obtained a 4G licence based on TD-LTE, which is supported by Apple’s latest iPhone models, it paves the way for a deal between the two giants.”
Read more in the full article here.
$weet!
Seems like the state-sponsored network provider is getting preferential treatment for network layout by the government. It’s got to be tough for the remaining providers to be competitive in that market.
Isn’t everything owned by the State in a communist country?
AAPL will be going Up nicely from here 🙂 w/ China Mobile signing w/ Apple to sell iPhone'(s) 🙂
730 million potential Chinese customers!!! Just 20% equals 146 mil.
I think USA AT&T has a total of 75 million customers only 🙂
AAPL opportunities!!!! Go Apple 🙂
According to All Things D, the CEO of China Mobile has informed them that they are not in a hurry to sign up Apple as a mobile phone vendor.
It looks like Apple is more in need of China Mobile then China Mobile is in need of them. I think China Mobile is going to squeeze Apple for more favourable terms, much more favourable than currently offered to China Telecom and China Unicom, before they open the floodgates to the iPhone.
Besides I don’t see Chinese consumers clamouring to buy the iPhone 5C which is priced too high. Not to mention the awful iOS 7. Truly awful OS.
Such a little troll.
Not in a hurry to listen to anything you say. If you kept up with the news, you would be aware that iPhone is already available for order through China Mobile.
Yet another paid troll…
FYI, iPhone is available through a China Mobile subsidiary in the lovely city of Suzhou.
No deal yet between China Mobile and Apple. Source:
Engadget: http://www.engadget.com/2013/12/04/china-4g-td-lte-licence/
CNN Money: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2013/12/02/apple-china-mobile-suzhou/
No wonder you’re a clown. You can’t read at the age of 10 so had to run away to join the circus.
You should actually try reading the cnn link you posted. The Suzhou deal is still live.
Anal ists will soon come out and say Apple iPhone is too expensive , it has no surprising features . China mobile deal done means no way Apple can grow .
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