Qualcomm set on promoting 3G
By Chen Zhiming (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-06-03 08:43

Qualcomm Inc reiterated yesterday it will spare no effort in working with its partners to become a powerful force behind China's third generation (3G)wireless telecommunications industry.

"We will help the Chinese telecom operators to further upgrade their networks and provide differentiated services to operators," said Paul Jacobs, executive vice-president of Qualcomm Inc, in an interview with China Daily yesterday.

US-based Qualcomm was the major power in pushing forward the development of code division multiple access (CDMA) digital wireless technology.

"The whole vision of 3G launching including WCDMA (wideband CDMA) and CDMA2000 is becoming a reality now," Jacobs said.

He pointed out that there are many 3G-based services and applications including video phone, ring tone download and location based services.

As for 3G network deployment, "it takes time to optimize the network," he said.

Figures indicated that by May 4, there were 82 telecom operators running 3G networks in 40 countries and regions.

Among them 65 are running 3G-related services based on CDMA2000 and 17 on WCDMA.

The number of 3G subscribers has so far topped more than 100 million (including 4 million WCDMA users).

Jacobs said that CDMA2000 is already a mature system which can help drive the country's 3G technologies.

"It is very unlikely that China will skip the opportunity for 3G," he said.

Nevertheless, the Chinese Government send out a strong message on Tuesday that it is not in a hurry to roll out 3G licences, which should be based on the market as well as on the maturity of 3G technology.

He also stressed that the Chinese market is "very important" to the company, given the size and potential of the market.

As far as value-added service is concerned, Jacobs expected its BREW (binary runtime environment for wireless) platform will continue to achieve explosive development this year in China.

The BREW platform is part of a complete, end-to-end solution for wireless applications development, device configuration, application distribution, and billing and payment. BREW-based services will enable consumers to customize their handsets by downloading applications.

"Different applications will be the major force that help drive up brew technology," he said.

Launched in July last year by China Unicom, there are more than 400 BREW applications offered by 200 developers in China.

He also expected that there will be more and more Chinese handset makers to produce CDMA phones adopting BREW technology.

In an effort to build up an entire CDMA mobile value chain, Qualcomm announced in April its participation in a US$14 million round of venture capital financing in Techfaith Wireless Communication Technology Ltd, an independent handset design house and China's leading mobile terminal design group.

Techfaith Wireless will design handsets based on CDMA2000 technology, initially targeting the Chinese domestic market.

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