Beijing. July 9. INTERFAX-CHINA - China Telecom plans to launch a high-end 3G CDMA2000 smartphone tender in August, a China Telecom employee told Interfax.
The August procurement will follow the same process used for China Telecom's July 3 tender of 3.6 million lower-end 3G smartphones, which the company plans to sell for approximately RMB 1,000 ($146.37) each, according to an unnamed China Telecom employee. All major CDMA handset manufacturers are expected to participate in the August tender, including Coolpad, Samsung, LG, Huawei and Hisense.
China Telecom will work closely with distributors to determine the volume and value of the upcoming tender, which aims to meet China Telecom's high-end handset needs for at least the next six months, the employee said. However, further details about the tender were unavailable.
The employee added that the company will use low-end 3G CDMA2000 handsets to target current 2G handset users. "Offering a stock of affordable 3G handsets may attract current 2G users to 3G services in the future. A large base of low-end 3G users will be the basis for developing high-value users," he said.
"If half of China's current 2G users migrate to 3G, the 3G handset market could be worth about RMB 300 billion ($43.9 billion), which is a huge market," he said.
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