Qualcomm Inc said recently that it anticipates strong growth in the Chinese market.

"China will be a key player in the growth for our worldwide industry," said Luis Pineda, vice-president of Marketing and Product Management for Qualcomm CDMA Technologies, Qualcomm's chipset branch. Adopted by China Unicom, one of the duopoly mobile operators in China, the CDMA system has registered a fascinating growth in China, the world's most populous market. Figures from China Unicom indicate that CDMA subscribers topped 16 million by the end of October. China Unicom is currently expanding its CDMA 1X, a 2.5 generation of mobile telecommunications. The company aims to develop 29 million CDMA subscribers by the end of this year.

It is widely anticipated that the Chinese Government is going to release its 3G licenses before the end of next year. China Netcom and China Telecom, as well as China Mobile and China Unicom, are also to get 3G licenses. Using 3G technology based on CDMA, upgrading CDMA 1X networks to CDMA1X EV-DO will be an "easier migration," Pineda said. According to him, Qualcomm will continue to offer more multi-mode chipset solutions for handsets. For example, it is co-operating with China Unicom on its GSM (global system for mobile communications) 1X system, which will enable customers on the GSM system to enjoy services offered by China Unicom's CDMA network. As for its chipset solution for the WCDMA system (Wideband CDMA), Qualcomm announced that its MSM (Mobile Station Modem) 6200 WCDMA chipset solution has been tested by and successfully validated by all 13 worldwide WCDMA infrastructure vendors. The chipset solution is reported to be the first to achieve voice, circuit and packet data interoperability with all WCDMA infrastructure vendors, enabling a wide range of handset manufacturers to offer wireless devices that will seamlessly operate on any WCDMA network in the world.