Initiated by China Telecom, the operator of the CDMA2000 network in China, China's "CDMA2000 Mobile Phone Design and Development Industry Alliance" has been founded in Beijing with over 100 members, including mobile phone chip platform providers, mobile phone design companies, and brand manufacturers with independent development abilities.

Yang Xiaowei, vice general manager of China Telecom and chairman of the alliance, told local media that with the establishment of this alliance, China Telecom aims to cooperate with various links of the industry to enhance the development of medium-end CDMA mobile phones in China.

Before China Telecom took over the CDMA business from China Unicom during the Chinese telecom restructuring, there were only 30 CDMA terminal manufacturers. So far, the number of manufacturers engaged in the design, development, and manufacturing of CDMA mobile phones has increased to over 200, of which over 100 are members of the newly established alliance. These members include Qualcomm, VIA Telecom, MediaTek, Microsoft, Foxconn, BYD, Okwap, Longcheer, Sim Technology, Samsung, Huawei, ZTE, Tianyu, LG, Coolpad, Hisense, Haier, Lenovo, Motorola, Nokia, Dopod, Datang Telecom, and Sharp.

Yang said the alliance will reinforce the strategic cooperation in the upstream area of the industry chain; optimize and standardize the development of terminal clients and the testing process; jointly develop overall solutions which are suitable for the mobile phones and service customization of China Telecom; and improve the cost efficiency of CDMA products.

Yang added that China Telecom will expand its CDMA user base by promoting the development of terminal industry chain and it is expected to have over 100 million CDMA users by the end of 2010.