Slow Growth in China Fixed Mobile Convergence Until 2008, Says Research Group

Fixed Mobile Convergence (FMC) will grow slowly at first in China, and then experience swift growth after the commencement of 3G services between 2008 and 2010, according to tech research firm In-Stat. In 2005, there were about 400,000 consumer FMC subscribers, and that number will increase to 11.4 million in 2010, said In-Stat in a release. FMC allows for collaboration capabilities between telecom networks and client devices including the ability for any terminal to access the network anywhere and anytime, regardless of bandwidth and rates.

"From 2005--2008, convergence in China will mainly happen in the narrow band voice field," says Kevin Li, In-Stat analyst. "From 2008--2010, converged broadband voice and data will dominate the FMC market. After 2010, convergence of multimedia content will emerge."

Recent research by In-Stat found the following:

• For the Chinese business market, FMC subscriber totals will increase from 0.4 million in 2005 to 5.6 million in 2010.
• FMC not only means the convergence of services and networks, but it also means the restructuring of management departments. The four Chinese carriers agree that conflicts between departments will be a big obstacle in the development of FMC.