The Chinese operators have many advantages over their counterparts elsewhere, including free spectrum and significant government and vendor support for their R&D and trials. However, they also have many challenges. In particular, they are caught between having their technologies and deployment timescales dictated by the government – sometimes without a firm basis in commercial potential – and having to turn a profit like any other MNO. The introduction of a new 5G entrant, China Broadcasting Network; the plan for China Unicom and China Telecom to share active networks; the aggressive timeframe for 5G; the permission for MVNOs – all these have restructured the market and provided profitability challenges for one or all of the operators. The latest change is the…