ASIA : BWCS : China may issue fewer 3G licences than had been expected and may limit some of those its awards to coverage of specific regions. The new claim comes from an official at the Ministry of Information Industry, who has been widely quoted today in the Taipei Times of Taiwan and on the ChineTechNews.com website.

The unnamed official said that while he believed that the area of coverage of some of the licences may be limited, he expects that the Beijing administration will push ahead with its plans to grant three franchises in the next two to three months.

With competition among China’s four largest telecoms companies intense, some analysts believe it would make good sense to limit the number of 3G licences granted in the country. That way the government will enable operators to at least have the chance of making some returns on the heavy investments they will be expected to put in.

According to the Taipei Times, the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry is expected to submit a final proposal on the introduction of 3G services to the State Council in Beijing before the summer. A final series of trials of the different 3G standards is also expected to be announced soon. The Ministry’s own industry statistics show that China had 334.8 million mobile users at the end of 2004, by the end of this year that figure is expected to grow to 393 million.

Source : BWCS