Siemens Invests In 3G For China

As part of the acceleration of its mobile communication activities in Asia, Siemens is continuing its focus on China as the largest market in the Asia-Pacific region. At the launch of the new S57 mobile phone, the Asian version of the S55, in Shanghai, Lothar Pauly, Board Member of the Information and Communication Mobile Group (Siemens mobile), stressed the importance of Asia in Siemens mobile’s worldwide mobile communication business. The global headquarters for voice-centric mobile phones, he declared, had recently been established in Beijing. This marked the first time that the central responsibility for one of Siemens mobile’s business activities had been established in China. The 50-person-strong voice-centric team develops affordable entry-level mobile phones for people who use their phones more for communication than for data exchange. In mobile network infrastructure, Siemens mobile continues to favor both the Chinese TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) standard as well as UMTS. The investment volume, he added, now ranges well into the hundreds of millions of euros.

Picture shows TD-SCDMA engineers working on the 3G standard in the R&D facility in Beijing. So-me 150 Siemens employees are currently working on this technology developing the 3G standard together with the China Academy of Telecommunications Technologies (CATT).

Its newly established international headquarters for voice-centric phones is a response to the strong demand for affordable, entry-level mobile phones in the Asian market. The number of 50 experts who work there today, Pauly indicated, will be nearly doubled over the course of the current fiscal year. In addition to developing mobile phones, the team is also working on localizing voice and menu operation: Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese are being added for the respective countries, with Hindi to follow in the beginning of 2003 for India.

Because the Asian market is increasingly influencing mobile phone size, style and applications globally, Siemens mobile is looking for trends and talent here:
“designafairs S Point” in Shanghai, the newly opened Chinese branch office of Siemens’ design department, provides ideas from the Asian market.
“Siemens Mobile Acceleration,” whose mission is to foster startups with innovative mobile business ideas, has offices in Shanghai and Beijing, from where a team of Siemens employees are on the constant lookout for startups with compelling applications for mobile networks and mobile devices. To date, the accelerator has invested in Magus Soft, a Beijing-based Chinese startup that develops and markets gaming and entertainment applications to operators and handset vendors. Further investments are planned in the region in the coming six months. “Every day, we receive good ideas for broadening our mobile communication business. People in Asia are open-minded to new technologies. What we find here are well-trained employees who can support us in achieving our objectives. That’s why we’re putting our confidence in this market,” said Pauly.

There was also good news from the field of mobile network infrastructure: Siemens mobile is one of the front-runners in Third Generation mobile communication. In addition to Europe, UMTS test networks are also up and running in China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore. “In Europe, we built the first fully functional UMTS networks in England and Monaco. And we’ll soon have similar successes to report with TD-SCDMA networks,” explained Pauly. Siemens mobile is developing the 3G standard together with the China Academy of Telecommunications Technologies (CATT). Some 150 Siemens employees are currently working on this technology in China. Following a number of successful tests in which voice and data were transferred error-free, it is now anticipated that the Chinese government will reach a decision on authorizing this standard. “In China, TD-SCDMA is every bit as important to us as UMTS. We will continue to pursue this development and will be sustaining our investments to the tune of more than EUR 50 million during the current year. The total investment volume ranges well into the hundreds of millions of euros,” Pauly said.
The excellent position of Siemens mobile in the Chinese market is proved by two recent orders of both Chinese mobile operators China Mobile and China Unicom. The most recent order, for over USD 31 million, covers the expansion of the GSM mobile radio networks in the regions of Sichuan, Anhui and Liaoning. Several contracts recently concluded with China Unicom cover GSM network expansion in several Chinese provinces. Their total order volume is approximately USD 108 million.

“We are one of the few manufacturers that cover the entire performance spectrum: From network infrastructure to services and applications right through to mobile devices. We offer one-stop shopping for this service throughout Asia but also worldwide,” Pauly said. “We’ve put a great deal in place here so that we can serve our Asian customers as a dependable partner. And we’ll continue to show the flag in the future in a major market that accounts for nearly 30 percent of our total sales.”