[photopress:it_tdscma_1_2.jpg,full,alignright]It is a great pity that China did not get its 3G services sorted out properly before the Olympics. We can rejoice that at least some of it is on line and working and there will be a serious presence — perhaps but not a total coverage — for the Olumpics.
We are triumphantly told that China’s 3G (third generation telephony) system will expand service to 10 cities AFTER August’s Olympic Games.
Wan Gang, the nation’s minister of science and technology said, ‘TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) will commence use in ten big cities after the Olympics.’ He did not provide details as to what cities or when or how large the coverage would be.
Last week, Samsung gave the Beijing Organizing Committee for the summer Olympics 15,000 TD-SCDMA handsets, allowing China to proclaim that it would offer 3G service, via China Mobile, during the Games.
However, it is important to note that TD-SCDMA does not support other 3G formats, so visitors with 3G phones from Japan, Korea and European countries will not be able to use their handsets in Beijing.
As China’s homegrown 3G technology, TD-SCDMA began its latest round of trials in April, in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Qinhuangdao, Shenyang and Xiamen, with a total of 20,000 users. China Mobile, which is offering the service and operating the trial, did not say when it would be completed. Although trials of TD-SCDMA began in 2005, a commercial rollout will still not ready by August.
China has also not issued 3G licenses, although Chinese telecom regulators have hinted at impending licensing for at least two years. China Mobile seems a lock given its prominence in the testing process. China Mobile is both China’s and the world’s largest mobile operator.
It’s also just possible — but not something to bet on — that China could skip 3G altogether, having already held 4G trials in 2007.
Worth nothing that despite the confident remarks of Wan Gang his Ministry of Science and Technology does not oversee telecommunications. That falls to the newly-created Industry and Information Ministry, a successor to the previous Ministry of Information Industry.
Source: IT World