The Chinese government announced it will enforce regulations announced last year requiring all foreign-manufactured mobile phones and other telecommunications equipment to carry a government-issued seal indicating authenticity. The government said the move will help it reduce smuggled goods from entering the country. Foreign executives said the campaign was a move to protect Chinese mobile phone companies from foreign competition.
Nokia and the Research Institute of Telecommunications Transmission (RITT) signed a cooperation agreement to further develop third-generation mobile communications in China. Under terms of the agreement, RITT and Nokia will set up and operate in Beijing an experimental field trial based on Nokia’s wideband-CDMA system.
Lucent Technologies and Konka Group signed an agreement under which they will cooperate to produce advanced technology mobile phones. The agreement will facilitate producing mobile phones using high-speed digital transmission, advanced language and video technology and extra-large fingertouch screens. In addition, Lucent Microelectronics Group said it is providing its GSM technology platform to Mobicom Corp. Mobicom, based in the United States and working in cooperation with Beijing Telecommunications Equipment Factory, will use the technology to develop GSM 900 and dual-band GSM 900 handsets for the Chinese market.
SmarTone posted a 41-percent decrease in net profits from HK$1.03 billion (US$132.6 million) to HK$604 million (US$78 million) in the first half of 1999. SmarTone blamed the decline on competition, particularly due to mobile phone number portability introduction earlier this year.
HKNet-Teligent, Winstar and Nextlink have applied for licenses to operate local multipoint distribution service (LMDS) networks in Hong Kong, according to the South China Morning Post. Eleven other companies also filed for licenses. The government has said it will decide how many licenses to issue by the end of the year, according to the press report.
In other LMDS|news, China Unicom is conducting an LMDS wireless access trial using equipment from U.S.-based P-Com.
