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China to issue 3G licenses, calls for Unicom / Netcom merger
This just in: don't believe anything you hear regarding an official 3G rollout date in China. After quite a bit of rigmarole, the Chinese government has finally announced that it will issue a trio of 3G licenses. Notably, the announcement comes with a bit of baggage -- it's also calling for a merger between China Unicom and Netcom, two of its four biggest telecommunications providers. Furthermore, it stated that it would call on China Telecom, the nation's largest fixed-line carrier, to "purchase Unicom's CDMA network," all leading to a massive shuffle that should position three of the nation's telecom juggernauts to eventually offer high-speed wireless to a staggering 1.3 billion people. Unfortunately (though not unexpectedly), there's no time frame given for implementation, but some analysts are asserting that "a full launch of 3G services is [still] years away." Baby steps are better than no steps, we reckon. [Thanks, James]
Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable system gets FCC approval
It's not like we haven't seen consortiums working to establish better links between America and Asia, but the more the merrier, right? Apparently, Verizon Business has just recently received the all-important thumbs-up from the FCC to "activate and operate the Trans-Pacific Express submarine cable system in the US." The TPE cable is hailed as "the first next-generation undersea optical cable system directly linking the US and mainland China," and is the first major system of its kind to land on America's West Coast (Oregon, to be precise) in over seven years. For those curious, the 10,563-mile submarine communications cable will be able to support the equivalent of 62 million simultaneous phone calls -- which is "more than 60 times the overall capacity of the existing cable directly linking the US and China" -- and will initially provide capacity of up to 1.28Tbps. So, when will this thing be up and running? If all goes to plan, it should be fully operational by August (you know, prior to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing).[Image courtesy of Devicepedia]
China building IPv6 infrastructure
China is looking to take the lead in the adoption of Internet Protocol Version 6, and steal a little thunder from the Internet2 consortium in the process. The China Education and Research Network has already connected nearly 200 universities and institutes using the new protocol, while China Telecom and China Mobile are expected to begin trial runs with IPv6 by the end of the year. This initiative is intended to reduce China's dependence on foreign hardware suppliers such as US-based Cisco Systems, and also help Chinese IT manufacturers become more competitive globally. Naturally, the gaming industry will also benefit from the advancements of IPv6, particularly in the mobile space where gamers on the go will have unique static IP addresses, in addition to improved data, voice, and video transmissions. Visit the IPv6 portal to learn more.See also: China, Intel, and the WiMAX agenda
