"We are presently looking for the possibility of launching CDMA telephones in China," said Staffan Soderqvist, executive vice-president of the mobile telephone maker's China operations at the Ericsson Strategy and Technology Summit held in Shanghai last Thursday.

He said possible ways to obtain the licence include making an application for a new one or co-operating with one, or several, of the 19 handset makers who hold licences. The CDMA mobile network, which is run by the mobile carrier China United Communications, already has more than 2 million subscribers and the telecom operator's goal is to acquire 7 million users during this year.

However, Sony-Ericsson China will still focus on the current telephone lines based on Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) mobile service subscribers mainly on China Mobile Communications' network, the country's biggest one. The handset maker released its T68i and T202 handsets on August 12 in Beijing, both of which can be equipped with a camera and enable users to transmit pictures.

T68i is also the first model in the world to support Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), which will be launched by China Mobile in October in China.

Sony-Ericsson will release three more models this year, all of which will have MMS functions, according to Soderqvist.

MMS, an updated and much more expensive product of the Short Messaging Service, is regarded as a potential gold mine for both carriers and mobile telephone makers.

(China Daily September 16, 2002)