The Chinese government will begin to provide 3G (third generation)-based mobile telecommunications service before 2008, said Minister of Information Wang Xudong on Wednesday at the 2005 Fortune Global Forum in Beijing.

When China will start 3G licensing has been one of the top concerns of the information industry in China. Wang said the licensing depends on the maturity of the technology and of the Chinese telecom market.

"Over the past few years, some countries and regions issued 3G licenses to telecom operators. China will learn from their experiences," Wang said.

He said China has always paid a lot of attention to the development of the 3G telecom, and that it will continue to keep pace with growth trend for the technology and will devote great efforts to research and development in this respect.

China has worked out a frequency program for 3G and organized the largest experiment with the technology worldwide, involving some world-class manufacturers and operators. The country has also done much work to commercialize 3G technology.

On the world 3G market, the TD-SCDMA developed by China, WCDMA by Europe and CDMA 2000 by the United States have become the three major competing systems.

According to the Ministry of Information Industry, China will hammer out a special plan for the development of 3G sector before the end of this year.

At the Fortune Global Forum, which came to a close Wednesday afternoon, Wang Xudong said that China will go on adhering to the principle of opening up. The Chinese government will encourage domestic IT (information technology) enterprises to invest abroad and welcome transnational companies to establish business in China.

China will abide by the rules of the World Trade Organization and fulfill its commitment to its WTO membership, added Wang.

According to Wang, there are now 349 million subscribers to mobile telecom services in China, the most in the world. The total includes 319 million subscribers to GSM (global system for mobile telecommunication), and 30 million to CDMA (code division of multiple access) system.

(Xinhua News Agency May 18, 2005)