Press Centre
Visiting Professor Song Junde’s Lecture in OTCS:
The Development of Broadband Wireless Mobile Access Technologies in China
(Singapore, March 9, 2006) Professor Song Junde, a distinguished academic from Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT), was in OKI Techno Centre (Singapore) Pte Ltd. (OTCS) to give a talk on the current status and future trends of China’s wireless communication technology and market. Professor Song was invited as a special guest speaker in the bi-monthly OTCS Technology Rally event. His speech, titled Development of Broadband Wireless Mobile Access Technologies in China, was presented to the company’s managers and engineers from all departments.
Professor Song gave a brief account on the current status of the telecommunication market in China: at the end of 2005, the fixed line, mobile and internet services have 350 million, 393 million and 110 million users respectively (27%, 30.3% and 8.46% of the total population in China). The revenue from the telecommunication industry is mainly from mobile service (45.12% in 2005) and fixed line service (47.87% in 2005). Other services such as data communication and satellite communication account for only 7% of the revenue in 2005. In 2005 alone, there were about 5 million new mobile service users each month.
He also talked about the history and development of the internet in China. According to him, the growth of internet service has been outpaced by that of the mobile communication service. In the world, 1 in 5.3 mobile service users is from China. For fixed line service, the ratio is 1 in 3.5. But for internet usage, the ratio is only 1 in 9. He cited two reasons for this discrepancy: the difficulty to provide quality of service (QoS) and security, and the low business profit margins of internet operators.
Regarding the future of personal devices and handsets, Professor Song presented his crystal ball in the form of an evolution roadmap for terminal devices, both fixed and wireless (see diagram). He singled out MIMO and OFDM as the two key technologies for future personal devices, from which the transmission rate is expected to be in the tens of Mbps. He also predicted that WiMAX technology would accelerate the traditional cellular mobile evolution and standardization.
On the current status of WiMAX in China, he reported that the major telecommunications players – China Telecom, China Netcom, ChinaMobile, China Unicom, China Satcom and China Railcom – are seeking ways to construct broad wireless access by deploying WiMAX. Institutes and universities are also researching and developing WiMAX technology. Some trial WiMAX systems have already been set up in Dalian, Beijing. Shanghai. Professor Song posed this challenge: Is there any way for WiMAX to avoid the low profit, low growth pitfalls of the internet service operators in China?
“The best way to make WiMAX profitable is to combine and merge the broadband wireless access (WLAN, WiMAX) and the wideband mobile communication by 3G and/or B3G”, he said, before presenting a chart of possible technology convergence (see below). The convergence would produce a higher level of broadband wireless mobile information and telecommunication system. Professor Song concluded that from the aspects of complementarity and compatibility of technology application, convergence of TD-SCDMA and WiMAX is the best choice.
