CHINA: Guangdong Mobile investing 6b yuan for 3G network expansion

Despite economic hardship felt worldwide, Chinese mobile company, Guangdong, is investing 6-billion yuan, or roughly $877 million USD, to expand the 3G network.

The expansion aims to cover the South China province "within this year and sign up 500,000 TD-SCDMA users." Guangdong plans to build 6,300 TD-SCDMA base stations within the year. 

TD-SCDMA stands for Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access.  It is a channel access method developing in China "in an attempt not to be dependent on Western technology." 

"Guangdong branch is the largest provincial branch of China mobile." In contrast to most global companies, Guangdong increased by 9% in business revenue in 2008.  There were more than 80 million users as of 2008.  

To compare, the largest mobile company in the United States is Verizon Wireless carrying 83.7 million users across Verizon, Alltell and Vodafone. 

-Samantha Mayer (CHINA)