Li Xiaowei, chairman of the board of Quantong Telecommunications Co. based in Hubei Province, said his company has planned to use 700 million yuan (US$84.34 million) to develop a 800-HZ digital wireless cluster system capable of providing efficient telecom service to professional Internet portals and individual subscribers alike.

The development will take two years to finish. The projected telecom system is estimated to have 220,000 subscribers. With the operation of the new system, Li's company will mainly provide local government departments, enterprises and other organizations with telecom control services.

Antti Ware, vice-president of Nokia (China) Investment Co. Ltd., said that Nokia had promised to provide the Chinese company with the digital cluster equipment needed by the latter in a technical testing net before next May and to aid the Chinese company to set up a digital cluster technical center.

The Chinese company also signed an agreement with Nokia for jointly developing software. According to the agreement, the Chinese company will be responsible for working on the Chinese version of Nokia's digital cluster software and related applications.

A survey shows that by the year of 2010, the digital cluster telecom market demand in China will amount to 150,000 channels worth 80 billion yuan (US$9.64 billion).

(Xinhua 11/24/2000)