The Chinese government is calling for an intensive industry-wide effort to speed up the development of TD-SCDMA mobile phones, to help turn the home-grown standard for third-generation (3G) mobile communications into a commercial reality.

TD-SCDMA technology has made major breakthroughs in the past few months, said Zhang Xinsheng, deputy director of the Department of Science and Technology under the Ministry of Information Industry (MII).

However, the immaturity of mobile phones and chips supporting such a network standard is still a problem.

"The top priority (for the TD-SCDMA industry chain) now is to redouble its efforts to develop (mature) chips and mobile phones," said Zhang yesterday.

"There is not much time left for TD-SCDMA. We need time to prepare for a larger-scale network trial."

TD-SCDMA has for a long time been an unproven technology. But in recent months, successful network test results, increasing industry-wide support particularly from some major global telecoms giants and strong government backing have increased the possibility that TD-SCDMA will be a winner in China's 3G market.

The quicker maturity of terminals will help TD-SCDMA have a better chance of competing effectively with the two standards WCDMA and CDMA 2000, which are backed by foreign companies, noted the official.

Although TD-SCDMA networks and systems performed well in recent technical trials sponsored by the government, there is an urgent need to increase the stability and reliability of TD-SCDMA mobile phones, according to Wei Guiming, an engineer with the China Academy of Telecommunications Research affiliated with the MII.

He said it was vital TD-SCDMA handsets are stable and reliable.

In comparison, "we can currently set relatively low requirements for more complicated functions such as video calls" which can be improved gradually and naturally, he added.

The government has asked four major TD-SCDMA equipment makers TD Tech Ltd, ZTE Corp, Datang Telecom and China Putian Corp to open free labs for handset makers to test TD-SCDMA mobile terminals, Zhang revealed yesterday.

TD Tech, a US$100 million joint venture between Siemens and Chinese top telecoms equipment maker Huawei Technologies, will be the first to open such a lab.

Major TD-SCDMA chip makers including Commit Inc and T3G Technology yesterday promised to deliver mature chips supporting TD-SCDMA/GSM dual-mode phones to handset manufacturers by the end of the year.

GSM is a 2G telephony, popular in China and other countries.

Zhang said the "open-lab concept" could provide a catalyst for a broader industry cooperation.

TD-SCDMA developers including network makers, handset makers and chip makers are potential rivals once operators adopt TD-SCDMA standards.

TD Tech Chief Executive Officer Steven Yeo said the firm is willing to partner any TD-SCDMA player to speed up the maturity of the technology.

"Now we are competing with neither Datang, ZTE nor Putian. We are competing with WCDMA and CDMA 2000," he said.

"The open-lab move is our long-term commitment."

Yeo said he firmly believed TD-SCDMA will have a big share of the 3G market in China.

"In recent months, TD-SCDMA technology has experienced a dramatic turnaround," said Yang Hua, secretary-general of TD-SCDMA Industrial Alliance, an association formed by major supporters of the standard.

TD-SCDMA's gaining momentum is expected to speed up the hand-out of licenses by the government to operators to build 3G networks.

Many observers now believe the awarding of 3G licenses could happen early next year.

(China Daily September 29, 2005)