Trump trade war causing China consider merging 2 big mobile-phone carriers

“As we head into another step- up in the US-China
trade war (ie, tariff on $billion of Chinese exports to the
US), we believe the State Council would be more eager to
think fresh and more radically about how to accelerate 5G
rollout.”

Lee estimates that a combination will leave the
country’s telecommunication industry two
mega carriers, CT/Unicom and China Mobile, and
allocate them different spectrum to allow both to
aggressively develop 5G technology.

“Under a merged CT/Unicom (T/U) scenario, T/U and CM
will both be allocated the following: 1) 100MHz of
contiguous spectrum at 3.5GHz, 2) 100MHz of contiguous
spectrum at 4.9GHz, and 3) 50MHz of contiguous spectrum at
3.3GHz for indoor coverage,” Lee said. 

“In addition, the government may allocate 60MHz of
contiguous spectrum at 2.6GHz to T/U (below CM’s current
allocation), and 40MHz (above CM’s current allocation) to
CM so that CM can combine it with its existing 4G spectrum
of 60MHz. That means CM will have 100MHz spectrum at 2.6GHz
to deploy, more than T/U’s 60MHz.”

Fifth-generation, or 5G, connectivity has been one of
the core competitions between the two countries.
The US is pursuing a comprehensive
wireless strategy to ensure that the
nation will lead the world in the deployment of
next-generation wireless technologies, according
to Federal Communications Commission, who said 5G
technology could be up to 100 times
faster than current 4G service.