3G user market in China keeps a steady growth in this year. According to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, up to the end of June 2010, 3G users in China have added up to 25.2 million.

Seen from the comparable data from the three operators, up to the end of June, TD users of China Mobile have reached 10.46 million and 3G users of China Unicom have reached 7.56 million, thereof we can arrive at the conclusion that 3G users of China Telecom have reached 7.18 million. Seen from the total of 3G users, China Mobile leads over the other two operators.

The market effect of 3G begins to appear. Since the second quarter of this year, 3G user market in China has showed tendency of accelerated development and enjoys higher share in the incremental market of mobile users. In the first quarter of 2010, 3G users newly increased by 1.61 million on average monthly and that of the period from April to May was 1.91 million. Additionally, according to statistics from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, 3G users newly increased by 2.299 million in May, up 11.7 percent month on month, and newly increased 3G users accounted for 24.4 percent of newly increased mobile users.

Statistics previously published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, showed that, mobile telephone users newly increased by 4.83 million in the whole industry from January to March and up to the end of March 2010,, 3G users in China had added up to 18.08 million. During the same term, mobile telephone users newly increased by 29.489 million in the whole industry, and newly increased 3G users accounted for 16.38 percent of newly increased mobile users.

After developing for more than one year, the market effect of 3G begins to appear gradually. According to data of May published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China Telecom had newly increased 3G users of 616 thousand in May; China Mobile had newly increased TD users of 917 thousand; China Unicom had newly increased 3G users of 766 thousand. In terms of China Telecom, it had newly increased 3G users of 500 thousand on average monthly in the first quarter of this year, and about sixth of newly increased mobile users is 3G users. It is obvious that newly increased 3G users in May are more than the average level of the first quarter.

In the early time, the three big operators all put forward development goals of 3G users in 2010. China Telecom is hopeful to have newly increased 3G users of 8 million in this year; China Mobile has planned to have newly increased users of 11.5 million at any rate in this year and meanwhile, spares no effort to strive for newly increased users of 15 million all the year round; to develop newly increased 3G users of 10 million is the task for China Unicom to reach.

Although this puts more or less pressure on operators, 3G user market shows favorable growth momentum after all.
However, 2G business still occupies the dominant position in the market. According to statistics, even if China Telecom who has the highest penetrance of 3G business among the three big operators, its rate is less than 10 percent. Analysts hold that China Mobile will still continue to maintain its super strong revenue scale in a short time profiting from its 2G mobile users of more than 500 million, and China Telecom and China Unicom then will expand their user groups by 3G business. Newly increased user market of 3G has showed tendency of becoming better and a new structure is in gestation.

This year is a crucial year of developing 3G and operators will face fiercer competition for 3G users. Especially that China Telecom and China Unicom have increased investment on 3G network construction, marketing promotion and the like so as to narrow the user scale gap with China Mobile. Subjectively, both China Telecom and China Unicom hope they can make a difference in 3G and integration business and whereby change their minority position in the market. Insiders think that it can not exclude the possibility to re-adjust telecommunication industry in China if China Mobile continues to occupy the dominant position exclusively.

Perhaps, market structure will change therewith when 3G business becomes the mainstream. In 3G era, operators also need to provide data application service of high value for users while keeping speech business of high quality. And the feature of 3G rests with data application.

Board Chairman of China Unicom Chang Xiaobing holds that it needs the following factors from three aspects to make 3G industry in China bigger and stronger: corresponding network coverage; the terminal keeping up with market demands; every industry rendering service application for ordinary people.