Homegrown 3G gets the nod

President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao have voiced strong support for homegrown 3G mobile technology, the South China Morning Post reported. Industry officials say the leaders support the largely home-grown wireless communications technology TD-SCDMA (time division synchronous code division multiple access) over the international standards W-CDMA and CDMA2000. Their backing could allow the long-delayed issuance of 3G licences as early as the first quarter of next year. The number of potential 3G users is expected to reach 23 million by next year and 106 million in 2008.