Tianjin Unicom prepares for GSM1x to counter poor CDMA2000 1X uptake

By the end of March 2004, according to the EMC World Cellular Database Tianjin had a total mobile subscriber base of 4.01 million, ranking it 25th in size among China's 31 provinces, with penetration reaching 40%. Tianjin Mobile had around 2.84 million subscribers while Tianjin Unicom had approximately 1.18 million subscribers. Of Tianjin Unicom's subscribers, 914,120 were GSM users and 264,470 were CDMA users. In comparison, Tianjin's fixed-line subscribers reached 3.89 million by April 2004, with a penetration rate of 38.6%. Meanwhile the PHS network of Tianjin Netcom, which only launched in June 2003, had 800,000 subscribers by April 2004.

Tianjin Mobile (TM)

Although the standard postpaid GoTone (Quanqiutong) and prepaid Shenzhouxing tariffs are still set at CNY 0.4/minute and CNY 0.6/minute respectively, TM has also launched various promotional packages with significant discounts targeted at different consumer groups. The 'Jinmentong' service for subscribers who make calls mostly within the local Tianjin area offers discount packages for local calls. Tariffs of three Jinmentong packages are listed below:

Tianjin Mobile has also launched the Sixiang (Missing You) card (full name Shenzhouxing Sixiang Card), which is mainly targeted at mobile users whose families or relatives do not reside in Tianjin. This package offers several discounts on off-peak and long-distance calls:

Tianjin Unicom (TU)

In relation to its marketing activity and tariffs, TU uses discount tariffs to promote both its GSM and CDMA services. Examples of various promotional packages are listed below:

TU continues to use handset subsidies as its primary method of attracting potential subscribers to its CDMA service. Currently, TU promotes its CDMA service through its own sales channels and through distributors. TU uses the distributors for individual customer sales and mainly offers subsidies through its handset leasing programme.

The handset leasing programme is the same as that implemented by many of China Unicom's other provincial branches in 2002 and 2003. Through the programme subscribers can receive a free CDMA handset after paying a deposit equal to 1.5 times the handset's retail price. After paying his or her regular monthly fee for two years, a subscriber can then receive his or her deposit back and keep the handset. The service fees paid during the two-year period must at least equal the amount of the deposit. For example, a subscriber can receive a free Samsung X199 handset, priced at CNY 1,920, after paying a deposit equal to CNY 2,880. The subscriber must then spend the same amount on mobile fees over two years, and will then receive his or her deposit back from the operator.

In addition, TU is also promoting its CDMA VPN (virtual private network) service to group users through its own sales channels. Under the programme to promote VPN, group users that meet certain requirements can receive free handsets. TU has set up a team dedicated to sales of the service, whose existing users include Tianjin First Auto Works and Tianjin Construction Bank. As Tianjin is one of the few areas together with Sichuan and Chongqing where Unicom offers fixed-line services, TU bundles its fixed-line and CDMA services together with VPN services. Under its VPN service, TU also provides discounts to various target groups to promote its CDMA service. For example, TU offers discounted voice tariffs for university group users and discounted data services for high-end group users, such as banks. Many of the discounts offer more than 50% off standard tariffs.

Mobile data services

TU has been aggressively developing new features and functions for its CDMA data service. However, SMS remains TU's most widely used data service. In the first four months of 2004, traffic through its SMS based Uni-info service reached 71 million messages. TU continues to broaden its partnership with Service Providers (SPs) on SMS, with the number of SMS SPs rising from 36 to 67 in the first four months of 2004. One of the largest SPs is '95Info', a subsidiary of CITIC (China International Trust & Investment Corp).

CDMA2000 1X services have not performed well in Tianjin. Among all of TU's CDMA2000 1X data services, WAP is the most popular. Although WAP users reached 100,000 by April 2004, or 25% of TU's total CDMA subscriber base, traffic remains sparse and average monthly information fees amount to just CNY 100,000, or CNY 1 per subscriber per month.

In preparation for the GSM1x programme to be launched by China Unicom at the end of July 2004, TU is testing a GSM1x dual-mode handset and is aiming to enable GSM users to use CDMA2000 1X data services, which should boost CDMA data traffic over the network.

Another data service that is gaining popularity among subscribers is TU's colour ring-back tone service. TU launched CDMA and GSM colour ring-back tone services on 1 March 2004 and 15 April 2004 respectively. The service had signed up a total of 50,000 subscribers by the middle of May 2004.

PHS - Tianjin Netcom (TN)

Tianjin was one of the last provinces to offer PHS services, with TN launching its PHS service in June 2003. However, by April 2004 TN had an impressive 800,000 PHS users and is now signing up approximately 3,000 new subscribers per day on average. TN offers several tariff packages for PHS. Two typical tariff packages are listed below:

TN's PHS tariff (Calling Party Pays)

TN also offers various PHS data services including SMS (CNY 0.08 per SMS), internet access and colour ring-back tone. TN launched the colour ring-back tone service on 17 May 2004 and plans to charge a tariff of CNY 3 per month after the free testing period ends on 20 June 2004.