Oct. 09, 2000

Four Chinese wireless equipment providers - Zhongxing Telecom, Xiamen Overseas Chines Electronics, Beijing Huahong IC Design and Ningbo Bird - recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Texas Instruments in Beijing to jointly develop 2.5G cellular phones. Tom Engibous, chairman, CEO and president of TI was present at the signing ceremony.

The four Chinese companies will form a new joint venture company, under the funding and supervision of China's Ministry of Information Industry, to develop 2.5 G wireless phones for the China market. TI will provide technical consultation, development tools, and critical semiconductor components, including digital signal processors and analog chips.

There were 59.3 million cellular phone users in China in the first half of this year and the number may exceed 140 million by 2003, according to the Ministry. Currently, Motorola, Nokia, Ercsson and Siemens are the major cellphone suppliers in China. The Chinese government is eager to assist local cellular phone makers in gaining market share while TI intends to use this opportunity to enter the cellular phone IC chip market in China. Other international companies, including Qualcom and Motorola, are also actively establishing contacts with local cellular phone manufacturers.