China's State Council issues green light to release 3G licenses, says paper

China's State Council has given the nod for its administrative branch to issue the long-awaited 3G licenses to the country's telecom service operators, paving the way for a take-off of commercialized 3G services in 2009, according to media reports in China.

Following the green light issued by the State Council, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will soon issue three 3G operating license to three service providers, demanding each focuses on a single 3G network pertaining to the TD-SCDMA, WCDMA or CDMA 2000 standards.

China's three top service providers – China Mobile (expected to be granted a TD-SCDMA license), China Unicom (WCDMA) and China Telecom (CDMA 2000) – are estimated to invest a combined total of 200 billion yuan (US$29.3 billion) in 2009 to establish the first phase of their respective 3G networks, after being granted with the operating licenses, according to estimates by market sources in Taiwan.

All of the global leading telecom equipment vendors, including Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Alcatel Lucent, Motorola as well as China-based Huawei Technology and ZTE, are expected to benefit from the issuance of 3G service licenses, the sources noted.