Europe Ireland : Research and Markets has announced the addition of Telecom Infrastructure - Annual Report on CAPEX Investments by Operators 2004-2005 to their offering.

2004 saw a reduction in telecommunication investments in the Chinese Cellular Infrastructure market. The investments that were made were more prudent, rational, and on a smaller scale than previous years. The actual investment was 213.7 billion US dollars, which was down 3.5% compared with the same period of the previous year. While China Mobile, China telecom and China Tietong invested more than they planned, China Netcom and China Unicom invested less than expected.

The following outlines the general structure for the equipment expenditures of 2004. 24.4 billion RMB was invested in fixed networks including switching, access, broadband, and PAS. 25.5 billion RMB was invested in mobile networks including CDMA and GSM (16 billion in GSM and 9.5 billion in CDMA). 7.7 billion RMB was invested in optical networks. 4.3 billion RMB was invested in new businesses, including intelligent networks. 10.4 billion RMB was invested in operation support systems. And, 5.1 billion RMB was invested in IP networks.

The main uncertainties that influenced the CAPEX of network carriers in 2005 were the reintegration of previously separated carriers and the issues of obtaining 3G licenses. The 2G mobile infrastructure will maintain their usage until new 3G licenses are issued. So, the market for 2G equipment will wither after the 3G license are dispersed.

In the absence of reintegration and 3G, it's estimated that the network carriers' CAPEX will reach 210 billion RMB in 2005. This is almost equal to that of 2004. And since the 3G licenses will not be issued until the second half of 2005, neither the exact date nor the number of licenses will significantly impact it.

Before the issuing of 3G licenses, cellular network carriers will mainly invest in rebuilding and upgrading their existing network. They will put the remainder of the investment capital into customer service management, promoting quality and securing customer loyalty. As they prepare for the 3G explosion, fixed network carriers will still strategically focus on broadband and reduce PHS investments.

In the cellular infrastructure market, the percentage of sales from domestic manufacturers has reached 7%. In the 2G expansion, there were very few changes in the general structure of market for network equipment. With the diversity of investments from network carriers, the competitiveness of domestic manufacturers became much stronger due to the price advantage.