Home-Grown Chinese 3G Looks for Help
February 22, 2005 - source: BWCS
China is urgently seeking to widen the support base for its domestically produced 3G standard TD-SCDMA (time division synchronous code division multiple access). The eponymous alliance which promotes TD-SCDMA says it is in negotiations with domestic and foreign firms to enroll more members. The discussions have been given a new sense of urgency as a final decision on the country's 3G future is expected by the year's end.
Yang Hua, the secretary-general of the alliance, told the China Daily News that his company is still in discussions with ten foreign equipment vendors, including Nokia and Siemens. So far this year, he has only had to draw up membership cards for two new allies: local company Tongyu Communications Equipment Co Ltd and the Italian outfit STMicroelectronics. The European company is the first non-Chinese vendor to become part of the alliance.
Despite less than glowing reports of how the home-grown standard fared in a recent series of government 3G tests, Beijing has spared no effort in promoting TD-SCDMA. As China edges towards a decision on which companies will be allowed to operate next generation mobile phone networks and which systems may be employed the TD-SCDMA backers are increasingly anxious to improve their game.
Some analysts have gone so far as to suggest that government heel-dragging over 3G is designed to allow the domestically backed system to catch up with its rivals. The Chinese government has allocated 155MHZ frequency resources especially for the standard.
Chinese chip supplier T3G Technology which is focused on the TD-SCDMA standard has recently been supported by Motorola, Philips, Datang and Samsung. Clearly they do not intend this money to go to waste. As Matthew Insley Growney, Managing Director of Motorola Ventures put it "As one of Motorola Ventures' first direct investments in China, we believe that T3G will be instrumental in bringing 3G TD-SCDMA into wide scale commercial deployment."
Meanwhile, as sources close to the government continue to hint that 3G licences will be deployed before the end of this year, the TD-SCDMA Association knows it has a fight on its hands. It is likely that a final series of 3G tests will be called for, to be overseen by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Information Industry. If the systems and operators pass muster at these inspections, then it is highly probable that they will get a licence.
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