The Data Age of Mobile Cellular Network in Germany and China： Policies,Technologies and Markets （Part I）

The UMTS auction in 2000 brought approximately 100 billion DM （Deutsche Mark） for the German National Treasury. T-Mobile （D1-Netz）, Vodafone （D2-Netz）, E-Plus （E1-Netz） and 02 （E2-Netz） have gradually evolved from GSM to full-fledged UMTS operators over the past years. The conglomerate of China Telecom was split twice. China acceded to WTO and promulgated the FITE Provisions. MIIT （Ministry of Industry and Information Technology） became the regulator and China Netcom was incorporated into China Unicorn in 2008. Most recently the layout of 3G future has been reconfirmed by MIIT. Voice service has remained the main source of income in both countries and operators have continued to focus on voice quality and network availability in their respective 2G networks. Because value-added and higher-speed data applications have been gaining market attention, 2.5G and 3G infrastructure has increasingly become the focal network strategy for the operators since the beginning of the new century. Germany has rolled out WCDMA/UMTS services on a large scale in the consumer market, while China has adopted all three 3G standards （TD-SCDMA, WCDMA/UMTS, CDMA2000）, which shall gradually capture a wider 3G subscriber base. The summary shows that the development of the cellular technology and market in Germany and China can be discussed in three distinct historical periods. The conclusion suggests that the case of the cellular technology appears to be consistent with and applicable to a number of arguments widely disputed in economics and management related to technology and innovation, such as dominant design, technology waves/ S-Curve, disruptive technologies, Technology Adoption Life Cycle.