China Unicom Deploys 3G Data Service Broadband Bundling Strategy as a Breakthrough

The development of non-voice service markets, especially 3G data services, has become the main theme of the operating market. In the era of 3G advocacy, operators can no longer adhere to the traditional fields, and how to achieve the deep integration and binding of terminals, resources, and business elements into development events.

In November, “Wo Store” was formally launched until December, when Beijing Unicom launched the bundled package of broadband wireless networks. China Unicom has recently been active in the 3G data service market. According to another Sina science and technology report, different from the broadband packages launched before Beijing Unicom, this package does not include voice calls, and only includes Internet traffic discounts. The package contains 600M Internet traffic and can use Unicom's WLAN wireless network. According to industry insiders, this is a powerful move by China Unicom to use the advantages of 3G networks to encourage users to use 3G data services.

With the growth of carriers' traditional voice services being scarce, the development of 3G data services will bring new profit growth opportunities for operators. This time, China Unicom's strategy of developing data services through broadband bundles has effectively driven the growth of data service revenues, or it will become a breakthrough for data business growth.

Developing 3G data services

According to the latest research from consultancy StrategyAnalytics, from 2006 to 2010, the total ARPU values ​​of mobile telecommunication operators in six countries including France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States all showed a downward trend, including the ARPU of data services. However, it shows a growing trend. With the continuous improvement of domestic operators' 3G network and application layout, data services began to grow rapidly. In view of the rapidly growing market potential of 3G data services, China Unicom has recently begun to deploy in multiple ways.

In terms of package configuration, China Unicom is taking the lead in launching broadband bundled services and hopes to further stimulate the growth of 3G data services. It is understood that Beijing Unicom launched a broadband, 3G network card and WLAN binding packages, users can pay 198 yuan 4M broadband package, the package contains 600M Internet traffic, and can use Unicom WLAN wireless network, and the previous package price is 298 Yuan; In terms of the terminal, it announced that the iPhone3GS8GB version will be priced at 1,000 yuan to promote the growth of 3G subscribers, which will in turn drive 3G data services. The iPhone, as the world's top 3G application terminal, has a strong dependence on 3G high-speed networks. The current launch of the iPhone 4 is designed for China Unicom's WCDMA standard 3G network. The iPhone series terminals have many excellent features such as application download, which will bring considerable data traffic to Unicom.

In terms of industry applications, China Unicom Group Corporation recently announced the official launch of an industry application partner recruitment program in order to popularize 3G applications in more fields. As of now, in addition to the rapid increase in the usage of 3G data services such as mobile Internet access, mobile TV, and mobile phone reading, China Unicom has also implemented applications in industries such as mobile office, mobile policing, mobile securities, mobile acquisition and editing, and smart transit smart cars. Developed.

The marginal benefits of voice services are declining

China Research Bofeng researcher stated that in recent years, the growth of voice services on which domestic mobile operators depend has been sluggish, so mobile data services have become an important growth space for the three major mobile operators. After the continuous improvement of 3G network construction, the mobile data services that are used as a feature of matching 3G networks have become the areas where the top three operators in China have to exert their power.

Traditional voice services have been the pillar business of the telecommunications industry and have made tremendous contributions to the development of the telecommunications industry. The number of mobile phone users will not grow indefinitely and will inevitably stop growing when it reaches a certain number. As the major operating revenue sources of major operators, this may cause the suspension or increase of the performance of major operators, and the future performance growth will face new challenges.

In this context, conducting business transformation and opening up non-voice markets, especially 3G data services, have become the main theme of the telecommunications industry. According to the survey, the proportion of mobile Internet users in the total number of Internet users has reached 66%, and mobile Internet access is gradually becoming one of the user's daily activities. According to China Mobile statistics, as of June 2010, China's mobile phone users' mobile Internet penetration rate has reached about 60%, mobile data traffic increased by more than 200%, WAP revenue accounted for the overall proportion of data services also rose to about 30%.

Chang Xiaobing, chairman of China Unicom, once said that the development of 3G services has to face the increasingly saturated reality of voice services. The next step is to instigate the development of non-voice services. He believes that the penetration rate of the current voice business is getting higher and higher, and while consumption is still growing, consumer income and marginal benefits are declining.

While the traditional voice revenue is weak, the development of data services has achieved certain results. Wang Jianzhou, chairman of China Mobile, disclosed that although China Mobile’s growth rate in voice calls and short message services was significantly reduced in 2010, the growth rate of data traffic was more than 150%, showing a momentum of blowouts, and some provinces’ growth even reached 200% to 300%. As of now, the proportion of data business income in China Mobile’s overall revenue has increased to 30%.

Like China Unicom, China Telecom and China Mobile are also accelerating the development of data services, and they have first introduced 3G applications such as mobile reading, mobile application stores, and so on, which are driving the growth of data services. It can be foreseen that the data business will be the driving force for the growth of future communications performance and represent future development directions.

Broadband Fusion Articles

At present, the three major domestic operators have listed the development of mobile data services as the main tasks in the next phase, such as e-books and mobile music. According to statistics released by Ericsson, global mobile data services have grown 10 times faster than voice services in the past year. 3G is a high-quality solution for future communications. The era of content is king. The industry has identified data services as the main driving force for the growth of the telecommunications industry in the future. As the three major operators continue to increase the popularity of 3G, it is expected to promote the rapid development of 3G services, and differentiated data services for market segmentation will also become more apparent.

At the end of this year, after China Mobile completed the "2010 TD network expansion project," TD base stations will reach 220,000, and the network will be able to cover 339 cities across the country; China Unicom already has 355 local networks and more than 97% in more than 2000 counties. The counties have already covered 3G networks; China Telecom’s 3G network covers 342 prefecture-level cities, 2,055 county-level cities, and more than 20,000 townships. Although the three major operators have completed the construction of 3G networks, as of the third quarter of 2010, 3G subscribers were only 34.968 million. Compared with 802 million mobile subscribers, the number of 3G subscribers was significantly lower. This also constrains the development of 3G data services to some extent. China Unicom's broadband bundled 3G network card launched by China Unicom will become an effective attempt for operators to further expand 3G data services. The industry believes that this will help foster consumer spending habits and accelerate the popularization of 3G data services.

Operators in the tide of convergence, especially in the increasingly perfect background of 3G network construction, have also increased the intensity of broadband bundling, and the foundation for the integration of applications based on broadband will be the magic weapon for defeating the enemy. For example, at present, there are 2 million broadband users in Beijing and 20 trillion of broadband access. In terms of 3G, more than 95% of the areas covered 3G signals, and China Unicom could achieve 100% coverage within the six rings. It is based on this advantage that Unicom has launched a broadband wireless network binding package, which is a coup to bundle existing broadband users. With the advantages of broadband resources, it will be able to better play the advantages of business integration, so as to make a good article in the depth of integration.

In short, operators in the 3G era can no longer adhere to traditional fields, and only bold innovation can open up new blue ocean markets. Under the backdrop of convergence, how to achieve deep integration and binding of terminals, tariffs, and applications is the development of operators. The important consideration of strength.