South Korea : The latest ROA Group research report, Telecommunications Market Restructuring in China and Competition over 3G Services, focuses on identifying the major issues in China’s mobile market.

In the end of May, 2008, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Ministry of Finance in China jointly announced the long-awaited telecommunications market restructuring plan named

Announcement on the Reform of the Structure of the Telecommunications Sector. According to the official announcement, the six telecom companies in China will merge into three integrated companies, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom. It is generally expected that the issuance of 3G license will be possible at the end of this year or beginning of next year when the restructuring process and mergers are over.

It is a foregone conclusion that the government will issue TD-SCDMA license to China Mobile, WCDMA license to China Unicom, and CDMA EV-DO license to China Telecom. The most important issues are the growth potential of TD-SCDMA that China has been pursuing, and the possibility of CDMA’s vitalization after the technology will be allocated to China Telecom, says David Kim, chief consultant at ROA Group.

The report addresses key issues surrounding 3G services, market competition and the positioning of players in the future as well as the tasks of the Chinese government to promote 3G services.