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Vodafone’s sale of its China Mobile stake won’t stop the pair collaborating on future technology developments, says China Mobile chairman Wang Jianzhou.
The two firms are currently developing an LTE data card that would pave the way for compliant smartphones, Wang told reporters at the World Economic Forum in China Wednesday.
He said Vodafone’s decision to sell its 3.2% stake had boosted their collaboration by removing uncertainty from the market, Bloomberg reported, and that the joint LTE development was agreed during a recent meeting with Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao.
The firms will also jointly develop green technologies, Wang told India’s Economic Times.
Wang revealed that he had met with Apple boss Steve Jobs earlier this year to discuss ways to bring the iPhone to China Mobile’s network, but Apple’s reluctance to make a TD-SCDMA version of the iPhone had scuppered the deal.
Wang reiterated the firm’s guidance of adding 10 million 3G subscribers during 2010, and stuck by its plan to reduce capex by 123 billion yuan ($18.3b) as construction of its 3G network nears completion, WSJ.com said.
Vodafone announced its decision to sell its China Mobile holding for €5.2 billion ($6.8b) a fortnight ago, as part of a strategy to offload exit minority stakes and focus solely on majority interests.
Source:
Michael Carroll