Two of Taiwan’s three biggest telecom operators are considering adopting China’s homegrown TD-SCDMA 3G mobile network standard, a boost for the fledgling technology’s bid for international acceptance. The reason why TD-SCDMA is so attractive—although it is far from technological perfection—is that it is free or, worse case, available at a very small royalty. The same is not true of the competing 3G systems.
So this is interesting, possibly amazing, news. Chunghwa Telecom and Far EasTone are in talks with Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), which signed a deal with China’s Datang Telecom to set up a trial TD-SCDMA network on the island.
If it should come to fruition, this would make it one of the first publicly announced cases of a company outside of China setting up a TD-SCDMA network.
South Korea’s SK Telecom and France Telecom have previously expressed interest in the Chinese technology, although nothing concrete has been done on a commercial basis.
ITRI spokeswoman Canny Jiang said, ‘Chunghwa and Far EasTone are talking to us about their interest in the technology’. She added that that unlisted VIBO Telecom and Tatung Telecom were also talking to them about using the TD-SCDMA standard.
China Mobile is a a key player in promoting the TD-SCDMA standard, as it is investing billions of dollars to set up a third-generation (3G) mobile network in the world’s largest mobile phone market.
You must log in to post a comment.