China Mobile has begun the marketing push for a public beta of 3G (third-generation) telephony services.
Television commercials on Beijing stations and display advertising in Beijing’s subway system have begun appearing, encouraging interested users to sign up for trial service. This will use China’s homegrown TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access).
Published rates for eventual commercial service set a RMB50 (US$7.33) per month minimum and RMB0.40 per minute for data charges within the user’s home city. For users who choose to make video calls instead of plain voice calls, made from their home cities, charges of RMB0.60 per minute apply, and for the first time, China Mobile will not charge users to receive calls.
After three years of trials of various sizes and in numerous Chinese cities, TD-SCDMA may finally be ready for roll-out.
Six handsets available as part of the trial are: the Dopod s700; Motorola’s l800t; Chinese handset maker Haixin’s T66; LG’s KD876; Lenovo’s TD800; and Samsung’s i688.
TD-SCDMA was developed as part of a larger Chinese effort to create technology standards that would not require the payment of royalties to foreign patent holders.
It is not compatible with any other 3G standard, and China’s carriers have not indicated they will support any other 3G standard.
Source: PC World