Nokia researcher Jan Chipchase’s investigation into the ways we interact with technology has led him from the villages of Uganda to the insides of our pockets. He’s made some unexpected discoveries along the way [...]

China Telecom, the country’s largest fixed-line operator, started trials of the third-generation (3G) mobile services in Shanghai recently, and plans to extend the same nationwide soon. Shanghai Telecom, China Telecom’s subsidiary, said it would invest 6 billion yuan (nearly 1 Billion US dollars) on various projects including the 2010 Shanghai Expo World, 3G-network construction, and enterprise services this year [...]

China Telecom has launched a nationwide “mobile phones to the countryside” program, the company announced recently.

China’s dot-com economy grew nearly 63 percent year on year in the second quarter, despite increasing inflation and the effects of the Sichuan earthquake, a Shanghai-based research firm reported recently. Revenue generated by China’s online search, game and travel providers reached 13.32 billion yuan (US$1.94 billion) in the April-to-June period, iResearch said…

China’s mobile phone sales will be lower than expected after the May earthquake and a lack of state of the art applications depressed sales in the second quarter, a Beijing-based research firm said recently. CCID Consulting, a research group with the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry, cut its 2008 domestic handset sales forecast to 165 million units from 185 million units. ‘The handset market lacks innovations and the 3G market has only just started so many consumers have adopted a wait-and-see attitude,’ said Li Xuefang, a CCID analyst…

China has told its six telecommunications companies to merge their assets, allowing fixed-line carriers to expand into wireless services and creating three operators that will offer phone and Internet connections to 1.3 billion people. Under the plan, the parent of China Telecom will buy a mobile phone network from the parent of China Unicom, which in turn will merge with the company that controls the China Netcom Group, the Ministry of Industry and Information said in a statement on Saturday. China will issue three third-generation wireless licenses after the overhaul is completed, it said…

The parent of China Mobile (0941.HK: Quote, Profile, Research), the country’s top wireless operator, have started commercial trials of a homegrown third-generation wireless standard, TD-SCDMA, in eight cities on April 1, state media said recently. Shares in several Hong Kong-listed equipment vendors, including China Communications Services Corp Ltd (0552.HK: Quote, Profile, Research) and China Wireless Technologies Ltd (2369.HK: Quote, Profile, Research), rose on Friday, as investors anticipate heavy spending on telecoms gear.

The commercial trials will help to improve TD-SCDMA technology, as well as provide better mobile services during the Beijing Olympics, according to Xinhua News agency [...]