Telecommunications Industry in The People's Republic of China - Telecom Operators

Telecom Operators

As of 2009, the telecom operators in China are exclusively Chinese: two fixed-line operators with nation-wide licenses - China Telecom and China Unicom - three mobile carriers - China Telecom (CDMA and CDMA2000), China Mobile (GSM and TD-SCDMA) and China Unicom (GSM and WCDMA). The State has control and majority ownership of all of them. Most of them are financed in Hong Kong.

• China Telecom is one of the largest telecommunication SOE in China, including 31 nearly autonomous provincial enterprises in mainland China. It runs land-line and mobile phone networks, operates PAS system and provides telecom network-based voice, data, multimedia and information services. In 2008, the company acquired CDMA network from China Unicom. A second focus point is broadband based on Ethernet and ADSL. In Jan 2009, China Telcom was one of the three companies having 3G license, CDMA2000.

• China Mobile not only operates basic GSM services but also value-added services such as General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) data transfer, a TD-SCDMA 3G network, IP telephony and multimedia. It ranks the first in the world in terms of network scale and customer base.

• China Unicom merged with China Netcom in Oct 2008 and obtained WCDMA license in Jan 2009. The company offers mobile phone services, operates domestic and international landline network, and provides broadband multimedia services and IP telephony and value-added services.

• China Netcom was acquired by China Unicom in Oct 2008.

• China Satcom is formerly licensed to engage in all kind of satellite related services such as transponder lease, domestic television broadcasting, public Very Small Antenna Aperture (VSAT) communications, video conferencing, data broadcasting, IP telephony and satellite based high-speed Internet access. In March 2009, the company officially announced its basic telephone services (excluding satellite transponder lease and sales) were merged with China Telecom. The other part, satellite related services will be merged with China DBSAT, (Chinese: 中国直播卫星有限公司).

• China TieTong, formerly affiliated with the national rail network, is a smaller operator that merged with China Mobile in May 2008.

• China Voice Holdings Corp is also licensed to engage in video conferencing, data broadcasting, IP telephony and satellite based high-speed Internet access and is the largest corporation in conjunction with foreign owned corporations which hold many of the state run contracts for the Chinese government.