Beijing 2008 Olympics - China's IT Gold

From CMPnetAsia:

"The 2008 Beijing Olympics is shaping up to be one of the biggest mega-event showcases for China — and this is driving IT developments in the country. It is the first time the Olympics is going to be held in China, and the Chinese government wants to impress the international world audience and put China firmly on the who’s who map of the 21st century athletically, economically, and culturally. In IT as well, this is no exception and the Chinese government seems determined to make a splash.

According to a recent October report from research firm Gartner, the Chinese government has announced its intention to make 3G services available in time for the Beijing Olympics. For China to meet the 2008 deadline, Gartner expects no more than three nationwide 3G licenses to be issued by the middle of 2006."

"According to Gartner’s analysis, they expect there will be no build-out of 3G networks from scratch, and all 3G rollouts will be migrating from established 2G networks. This means that incumbent 2G vendors will have a “significant advantage” to start because of the large presence they have in the marketplace. In other words, telephony vendors that already have a sizeable market share in China’s three carriers are likely to do even better when 3G starts being rolled out."

Related:
Chinese Portal Sohu Selected as Official Sponsor of Internet Content Service (ICS) for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games