Beijing. July 1. INTERFAX-CHINA ¨C China's CMMB (China Mobile Multimedia Broadcast) mobile TV network was commercially inaugurated last Friday with the launch in Beijing of the country's first retail outlet focused on CMMB products.
"CMMB terminals were previously only offered to friendly users for several trial runs," said Tom Zhang, chairman and CEO of Innofidei Inc., a key member in the CMMB industry chain and manufacturer of CMMB chipsets.
"With the opening of the first CMMB outlet in Beijing, the public can now buy over 20 different types of CMMB terminals, including handsets, MP4 players, USB dongles and GPS devices," Zhang said.
Located in Beijing's hi-tech Zhongguancun district, the CMMB outlet is a collaborative effort by Innofidei and several CMMB handset makers. The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) has agreed to open several more outlets in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Guangzhou before the Olympic Games in August, Zhang said.
"We also plan to supply CMMB mobile phones to sporting delegates and foreign media during the Olympic Games, and will open smaller outlets in airports and hotels," Zhang said.
"We have a strategic cooperative agreement with wireless operators, and CMMB chipsets will be integrated into TD-SCDMA handsets," Sun Zhaohui, deputy director of SARFT's Wireless Bureau, told Interfax.
Currently, seven channels are being broadcast on CMMB networks in 37 Chinese cities. Access to such channels is free until the end of this year, when SARFT may charge subscription fees for the channels. Sun said that details pertaining to this are still being discussed.
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