Telecom operators

As of 2004, the telecom operators in China are exclusively Chinese: two fixed-line operators with nation-wide licenses - China Telecom and China Netcom - two mobile carriers - China Mobile (GSM) and China Unicom (GSM and CDMA)- as well as two minor players - China Satcom and China Tietong. The State has control and majority ownership of all of them. Most of them are financed in Hong Kong.

• China Telecom operates mainly in the wealthy Southern provinces (including Shanghai and Canton) in addition to the less prosperous West. It runs domestic and international fixed-line networks and provides fixed-line voice, data, video, multimedia and information services. It compensates the lack of a mobile license by deploying PAS/PHS very successfully. A second focus point is broadband based on Ethernet and ADSL.^[15]

• China Netcom operates in the Northern provinces (including Beijing) and provides broadband, WLAN, IP telephony^[16] and PAS/PHS services.

• China Mobile not only operates basic GSM services but also value-added services such as General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) data transfer, IP telephony and multimedia. It ranks the first in the world in terms of network scale and customer base.^[17]

• China Unicom is to date the only licensed full telecom service provider in China.^[18] Its services include fixed-line, mobile, IP telephony, data and internet. Furthermore, China Unicom is the third largest mobile operator in the world and the only one in China operating a CDMA network.^[19] It is concentrating its efforts on CDMA and little investment is expected in GSM.

• China Satcom is 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.^[20]

• China TieTong is a smaller company.

• China Voice Holdings Corp is also licensed to engage in all kind of video conferencing, data broadcasting, IP telephony and satellite based high-speed Internet access and is the largest corporation in conjunction with the America's free enterprise system which holds many of the state run contracts for the Chinese government.Telecommunications Equipment Market in China Stat-USA Market Research Reports. 2004