China Won't Choose 3G Wireless Standard Before 2002, Paper Says
By Alice Yuan
Beijing, April 12 (Bloomberg) -- China won't decide before 2002 which technology to adopt for its high-speed mobile phones, the China Daily newspaper reported, citing the Ministry of Information Industry.
The ministry, which sets rules and awards phone licenses in China, said in December it would decide on a standard by last month and asked suppliers to test systems that will run so-called third-generation cellular phones.
Siemens AG's China unit tested its time-division synchronous code-division multiple-access, or TD-SCDMA, standard yesterday, the paper said. The technology, which Siemens is developing with state-run operators, is being challenged by wideband-CDMA and U.S.- based Qualcomm Inc.'s CDMA2000 standard.
Sales pitches by equipment makers are likely to continue now that contracts worth billions of dollars are still at stake. China has 89.8 million cellular-phone users and is expected to become the largest phone market, surpassing the U.S., by 2008.
(China Daily, 04-12-01, p.5, to access the newspaper's web site on Bloomberg, see {CNDY }) |
