China issues 3G licenses tonight?

A nameless source in the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) has leaked the news that the three restructured mobile telecommunications carriers, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom, will be issued licenses on the same day after a meeting with the State Council today.

This green light will most likely mean that 3G services will be available early next year and will provide a much needed boost to the telecommunications industry. China Mobile, the world's largest telecommunications carrier is expected to sign up 100 million users over the next 3 years.

China's 3G market will be fragmented as all three providers will be using different 3G standards; with China Mobile using the home grown TD-SCDMA standard. China Unicom and China Telecom will use the more globally accepted W-CDMA and CDMA2000 standards respectively.

This information comes at a particularly opportune time for 3G iPhone users as the iPhone Dev Team is also about to release its much anticipated software (Yellow Sn0w) to unlock the 3G iPhone on New Years Eve (Pacific Standard Time). The iPhone is compatible with the China Unicom W-CDMA standard.

Image by The Tenth Dragon