运营商合建基站公司 中移动面临政策压力

China Mobile, the world's largest wireless carrier by subscribers, is feeling the pinch of increasing pressure from the Chinese government, which is striving to reduce the company's dominance in China.

中国政府正努力削弱中国移动(China Mobile)在国内市场的主导地位，后者正日益感受到来自政府的压力。按用户数计算，中国移动是全球最大的电信运营商。

The latest policy headwind is its talks with the other two state-controlled carriers China Unicom and China Telecom to set up a joint venture to build and manage telecommunications infrastructures in China.

中国移动面临的一项最新政策阻力是：该公司正与其他两家国有运营商中国联通(China Unicom)和中国电信(China Telecom)讨论组建一家合资公司，负责建设和管理中国国内的电信基础设施。

The discussions-- likely directed by the government-- match with Premier Li Keqiang's stated goals to reform state-owned enterprises by boosting competition.

Bloomberg News中国移动一家营业网点中展示的手机。上述合资事宜可能由政府引导。中国总理李克强曾表示将通过提高竞争推动国有企业改革，筹建合资公司的举措与这一目标一致。

While the planned joint venture could help enhance the sharing of resources and reduce the costs for future network expansion, dominant carrier China Mobile may lose its strength in network coverage as it is likely to share its extensive network with the smaller rivals, said analysts.

分析师表示，尽管计划筹建的合资公司可能有助于提高资源共享的程度并降低今后扩建网络的成本，但此举可能令占据主导地位的中国移动与规模较小的竞争对手分享其庞大网络，导致其丧失网络覆盖优势。

China Mobile, which has reported declines in earnings, had a head start on speedier fourth-generation mobile services in China, hoping the new services would help fend off rising competition and help it regain growth momentum.

近期利润下滑的中国移动在发展高速4G网络服务上拔得头筹，并希望4G网络能够助其应对日益激烈的竞争并重拾增长动能。

Smaller rivals China Unicom and China Telecom operate on 3G mobile technology platforms that are widely used globally, which give them access to more popular smartphones. The two companies have sold Apple's iPhones for several years but China Mobile only started offering them with the roll-out of its new 4G network in January.

其规模较小的竞争对手中国联通和中国电信采用了全球普遍使用的3G移动技术，这两家公司因此能够与更受欢迎的智能手机厂家合作。两家公司已经销售苹果iPhone数年，而中国移动在今年1月份推出其4G网络后才开始销售iPhone。

The new joint venture could undermine China Mobile's first-mover advantage in 4G services, analysts said.

分析师称，新合资企业可能削弱中国移动在4G服务上的先发优势。

'If all tower assets in China are transferred to this new company, it will help China Telecom and China Unicom to accelerate their 4G network rollout, 'said Leping Huang, an analyst at Nomura.

野村(Nomura)分析师Leping Huang表示，如果中国全部通信铁塔资产均转移至这家新公司名下，那么受此推动中国电信和中国联通推出4G业务的速度可能加快。

The number of telecom towers that China Telecom and China Unicom own is only equivalent to 28% and 46% of the towers that China Mobile owns, according to Nomura's estimate.

据野村估算，中国电信和中国联通目前拥有的通信铁塔数仅相当于中国移动通信铁塔数的28%和46%。

Analysts said an independent telecom tower company is a common business model in some countries like the U.S, India and Indonesia. A tower company typically will purchase or lease land, build telecom towers and lease the space in the tower to telecom operators. Telecom operators will use the space to install base station equipment they purchase from equipment vendors.

分析师称，在美国、印度和印度尼西亚等国，独立的通信铁塔公司是一种常见商业模式。通信铁塔公司通常会购买或租用土地，搭建通信铁塔并将通信铁塔内的空间出租给电信运营商。运营商将利用这些空间安装从设备供应商那里购买的基站设备。

China didn't have an independent tower company in the past.

中国过去没有独立的通信铁塔公司。

As part of the government's continued effort to promote competition, China Mobile has already suffered from lower interconnection fees that smaller rivals pay for calls to the company's network, beginning this year. Analysts said the savings from the interconnection policy will help fund China Unicom and China Telecom's network upgrade and marketing efforts to further increase its mobile users this year.

中国政府一直在努力促进竞争，其中一项举措便是从今年开始下调中联通和中电信向中国移动支付的网间结算费用。分析师称，中国联通和中国电信将利用这一政策所节省的费用升级网络、加强营销，以便今年进一步增加手机用户数量。

They added that more policy headwinds are ahead for China Mobile in the coming years. For example, the Chinese government could gradually introduce mobile number portability which enables subscribers to retain their mobile numbers when changing from one carrier to another. This measure is expected to hit China Mobile badly as the mobile giant, with more than 770 million subscribers, controls about 60% of the mobile market in China.

分析师补充道，未来几年中国移动在政策上还将面临更多阻力。例如，中国政府可能逐步引入携号转网功能，即用户能够在更换运营商时保留原号码。预计这一措施将对中国移动构成严重打击，该公司用户数超过7.7亿，控制着中国移动通信市场大约60%的份额。

China Mobile declined to comment.

中国移动对此不予置评。