[photopress:IT_38.jpg,full,alignright]According to an industry insider, China Mobile is pessimistic about the development of TD-SCDMA, China’s homegrown 3G standard. Partly this is because of handset problems and partly because of the relative strength of other standards.
The source also said that operators are already preparing to compete over who will develop a network for WCDMA, the European 3G standard, once the TD-SCDMA network is in place.
The source, remaining very anonymous, said, ‘Inside China Mobile, most people are actually not optimistic about TD-SCDMA development.’
And that is almost certainly true for outside China Mobile there is little optimism because the system is not up and running except in test mode.
There is little doubt that TD-SCDMA will be ready in time for the Olympics and that there will be handsets available that will work.
The systems have been on test since November 2007.
The probability is that TD-SCDMA handsets will be released to the general public will be in May of this year. But they will not be as good in many aspects as handsets supporting the WCDMA network.
Analysts have speculated that following the reshuffle of China’s telecom industry, which is expected to happen in the near future, China Telecom will be responsible for WCDMA network construction after it receives a license to operate in the mobile industry. Which is what China Mobile wants.
Source: Interfax