After Much Delay, China's 3G Licenses Are Expected to Be Issued During the First Half of 2006, with Network Buildouts Expected Soon After.

DUBLIN, Ireland -- Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c32895) has announced the addition of Norson China Market Series: 3G in China - A Pre-launch Overview to their offering.

This Norson report serves as a guide to all players along the value chain (operators, vendors, terminal manufacturers, the financial community, and research houses) working to evaluate and preparing for the future 3G market in China. This report reviews the current state of China's mobile market prior to 3G licenses being issued, and focuses on the anticipated structural changes of the market, and future build-out investments and revenues.

After much delay, China's 3G licenses are expected to be issued during the first half of 2006, with network buildouts expected soon after. This Norson report provides a clear and comprehensive overview of China's current mobile market, anticipated licensing, and investment forecasts for the next five years.

This report contains a comprehensive look at each round of 3G network equipment trials. By looking at the locations and participating vendors, readers can gain a preview into likely 3G buildout patterns for each operator. Norson analyzes this data on a provincial basis, and by vendor, showing the number of Node Bs and MSC for each of China's 3G trial networks.

With 3G licenses delayed in part to allow time for the development of TD-SCDMA, the most recent trials indicate that China's domestic 3G standard is finally ready for commercial use.

In what Norson views as the most likely licensing scenario, the Chinese government will decide to place two strong operators in opposition to China Mobile. China Mobile, generally viewed as the operator in the best position heading into 3G, will receive a WCDMA license. China Unicom will keep its CDMA network and be granted a license to upgrade to CDMA2000 1x EV-DO. China Telecom and China Netcom will both receive separate nationwide TD-SCDMA licenses.

While China Mobile's massive user base gives it a clear advantage heading into 3G, after licensing it will face two strong competitors: China Unicom, which can upgrade to EV-DO in a matter of months and China Telecom, with a newly constructed network ready to be upgraded to TD-SCDMA.

This Norson report provides two additional restructuring scenarios, with in-depth analysis of the effects each scenario will have on China's upcoming 3G market.

Norson analyzes China's future 3G market, giving detailed user, network capacity, network buildout investment, and estimated 3G revenues for each of China's future mobile operators.

Norson analyzes China's 3G market from the equipment vendors' point of view, showing current 2G vendor market shares by network, forecasts for future 3G networks as well as analysis on each major equipment vendor's 3G strategies and goals.

Topics covered in the report include:

--China Market Overview

--3G Testing in China

--China's Telecom Operators

--Telecom Operator Restructuring

--China's 3G Telecom Operators

--Equipment Vendors

Companies Covered:

--China Mobile

--China Unicom

--China Telecom

--China Netcom

--China Satcom

--China Tietong

--Alcatel Shanghai Bell

--Datang Mobile

--Ericsson

--Huawei

--Lucent

--Motorola

--Nokia

--Nortel

--Siemens

--ZTE

For more information visit http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c32895