TD-SCDMA phone

The head of China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile phone group, said the country’s homegrown third generation mobile technology, TD-SCDMA, was ‘a few years behind’ other international standards because of problems with handsets.

(Which is interesting because although there has been much criticism of the handsets most of the complaints have been about the spottiness of the coverage and that is NOT a function of the design or build of the handset.)

China Mobile is expected to build its future 3G services on the TD-SCDMA standard, which is being developed in China while its  rivals are expected to adopt the European WCDMA and US’s CDMA2000 3G standards.

This puts China Mobile in a slightly tricky position and it is possible that the company will offer both systems in tandem.

The admission as to TD-SCDMA’s problems comes as two other mobile groups, China Unicom and China Telecom, are laying out their plans to challenge China Mobile.

China Mobile has spent RMB15 billion ($2billion) on trials using TD-SCDMA. More on this HERE.
Source: Financial Times

China Unicom goes mobile

China Unicom, the country’s second-largest wireless operator, aims to challenge China Mobile’s dominant position and win a third of the future users of the long-awaited third-generation (3G) mobile services.

Unicom announced the target after it said it would invest up to RMB100 billion ($16 billion) in the next two years to upgrade its network, with most of the money spent on the development of 3G.

Unicom is merging with fixed line operator China Netcom as part of Beijing’s state-orchestrated plan to reorganise the telecoms sector into three operators — each with wireless and fixed line services.

As part of the shake-up, China Telecom, currently the country’s biggest fixed-line operator, is taking over Unicom’s CDMA mobile business. Meanwhile, Unicom will continue to operate a bigger and more profitable GSM network.

Analysts said that Unicom’s target to grab a third of the 3G market was achievable because the company is expected to build its services on the widely-used and commercially-proven W-CDMA standard, offered by most European operators.
(Click HERE to read more on this).
Source: Financial Times

TD-SCDMA mobile

The Chinese government has given the green light to China Mobile to build a nationwide commercial trial network based on TD-SCDMA technology, the local 3G standard.

Whether China Mobile greeted the green light with unalloyed pleasure is open for debate.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology told the China Daily that the mobile operator had received approval to expand the network, currently operational in select cities, to national coverage.

However, he did not provide a time frame for when China Mobile would start the expansion. China Mobile started commercial trials of TD-SCDMA in eight cities in April, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Shenyang.

Analysts believe the ministry clearance underlines the government’s preference for 3G networks built on the TD-SCDMA standard. China Mobile has reportedly also been considering using WCDMA. Reported tests on TD-SCDMA seem to suggest that this technology still needs improvement.
Source: Telecom Paper

TD Digital TV mobile phone

China Mobile, an official Olympic sponsor, used the Games to tout a new network based on the government-backed TD-SCDMA standard.

The idea is that with TD-SCDMA China has its own standards and does not have to pay royalties to anyone else. Which is perhaps why it was not released properly, as promised, in time for the Olympic Games.

Three local employees of the Financial Times Beijing bureau won the chance to join a large-scale TD-SCDMA consumer service trial using locally produced handsets.

Unfortunately, after three days of intensive use, thierverdicts on the TD-SCDMA service were damning.

‘It’s too terrible’ said one who used a Panda TD988 made by Nanjing Panda, with a recommended retail price of RMB2,780.

‘It sucks,’ said another who had a Lenovo TD800 at RMB1,800).

‘Too awful,’ agreed another trying out a Postcom n268 made by Guang­zhou New Postcom Equipment at Rmb1,800.

It would be wrong to read too much into a single technology test involving only three people. But as a random sampling it will do. On this experience TD-SCDMA technology is not mature, not ready for release to the public.

Wang Yumin, of the government’s China Academy of Telecommunication Research, says that while TD-SCDMA trails years behind its rival standards, it is making progress. He estimates that by this month China Mobile has between 80,000 and 100,000 TD-SCDMA users, up from 52,000 in early July.
Read the full report HERE.
Source: Financial Times

Lenovo and Spreadtrum  have made a joint presentation to China Mobile of  Lenovo Mobile’s TD900, the new digital mobile-TV equipped TD-SCDMA handset.

The TD900’s design is based on Spreadtrum’s TD-SCDMA platform and mobile-TV solution.

Two batches of mobile-TV equipped TD900 are now in use by Beijing Olympics volunteers and staff members.

What we do not have is reports, as it were, from the action front. Instead we have the usual PR stuff from the two companies.

Yan Lv, President and CEO of Lenovo Mobile said, ‘TD900 is designed to address the needs of the mainstream market and is developed independently and to bring us the latest digital mobile TV experience.’

Dr. Ping Wu, President and CEO of Spreadtrum, said, ‘We are pleased that Spreadtrum and Lenovo Mobile were able to jointly deliver the digital mobile-TV equipped TD-SCDMA handsets. Spreadtrum has pursued independent innovation and has supported China’s self-developed standards for many years.’

What we want to know is how it worked in real life conditions. Taken that as a given then is seems even more likely that the home-grown TD-SCDMA standard is going to make it in a serious way in China. And then possibly some of the other, smaller countries of the world.
Source: Trading Markets

China Mobile has begun the marketing push for a public beta of 3G (third-generation) telephony services.

Television commercials on Beijing stations and display advertising in Beijing’s subway system have begun appearing, encouraging interested users to sign up for trial service. This will use China’s homegrown TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access).

Published rates for eventual commercial service set a RMB50 (US$7.33) per month minimum and RMB0.40 per minute for data charges within the user’s home city. For users who choose to make video calls instead of plain voice calls, made from their home cities, charges of RMB0.60 per minute apply, and for the first time, China Mobile will not charge users to receive calls.

After three years of trials of various sizes and in numerous Chinese cities, TD-SCDMA may finally be ready for roll-out.

Six handsets available as part of the trial are: the Dopod s700; Motorola’s l800t; Chinese handset maker Haixin’s T66; LG’s KD876; Lenovo’s TD800; and Samsung’s i688.

TD-SCDMA was developed as part of a larger Chinese effort to create technology standards that would not require the payment of royalties to foreign patent holders.

It is not compatible with any other 3G standard, and China’s carriers have not indicated they will support any other 3G standard.
Source: PC World

The consolidation and realignment we are seeing in Chinese telecom companies is a public/private service which is sorting itself out. Of its kind, it is much the largest in the world.

As the dust settles we appear to have three major carriers, China Netcom, China Mobile and China Telecom. Each of the companies will offer fixed-line, mobile and other services. They will be, as it were, full-service shops.

China Netcom is enhanced by adding in China Unicom — originally created as the state-run competitor to former monopoly service provider China Telecom.
China Mobile is acquiring China Tietong for its fixed-line network which will give it a full range of services.
China Telecom is taking on China Unicom’s CDMA network and has sworn it will spend at least RMB80 billion on this newly acquired network aiming to have 100 million CDMA subscribers in three years.

Once the tents have been folded and the Olympic throngs have marched on and everything is working properly — almost certainly before the end of the year  — China’s new telecom regulator, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, will formally issue 3G licenses although that already seems, in some cases, a done deal.

China Mobile (in which Vodafone has a 3.3% stake) is already publicizing its 3G service, which will use the China-developed TD-SCDMA standard, and is already providing 3G services to about 18,000 users.

It is a very complicated scene and it has still not been worked out in full but basically it can be seen there will be three major players and the biggest of them, China Mobile, will probably be the first to offer 3G services in the form of TD-SCDMA.
Source: Network World and Daily Telegraph London

Kai-Fu Lee, president of Google China, predicts a quarter of China’s 1.3 billion people will be online by year’s end.

At the same time the number of mobile subscribers is expected to grow to 738 million by 2010.  Which is more than double the population of the United States.

Apple’s new 3G iPhone offers not just chat but Internet access.

The relatively inexpensive iPhone caters to the hundreds of millions of people who will trade in their current cellphones for their first ever opportunity of owning a mini-computer.

The iPhone launch in China represents the most significant technological product release of the last few decades. Steve Jobs, on introducing the 3G iPhone,  clearly stated that he sees China iPhone distribution deals being completed by year end.

The only question remaining is whether the new iPhone will cater for China’s own, home-grown 3G standard, TD-SCDMA.
Source: Seeking Alpha

China will issue 3G mobile licenses and certificates after the restructuring of its six big telecommunications operators. This according to Xi Guohua, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China.

The reorganization is expected to be completed in about six months.

According to the restructuring plan, the TD-SCDMA license is expected to be awarded to China Mobile, while the CDMA2000 license and the WCDMA license will go to China Telecom and the new China Unicom respectively.

Xi Guohua said that foreign visitors will NOT be able to use their WCDMA and CDMA2000 EVDO mobile phones in China during the OIympic Games. However, they will be able to hire mobiles using TD-SCDMA.

China Mobile said it will offer at least 20,000 3G handsets for hire during the Olympic Games.

When asked whether the mobile phone network would work if the 100,000 audience at the Bird’s Nest made phone calls at the same time during the opening ceremony of the Olympics, Xi Guohua said, ‘Although China Netcom and China Mobile have greatly expanded the capacity, we could not guarantee that the network will operate at any minute but it will by no means be paralysed.’
Source: ZDNet Asia and China View

Visitors to Beijing for the Olympics are not going to get, as promised, 3G service on their cellphones, but it is promised Wi-Fi will be widely available, and it will be free of charge.

China Communications, working with the Beijing city government, has launched the first phase of its Beijing WiCity, providing free wireless Internet access in select districts throughout the city (shaded orange on the illustration).

The plan is to provide free Wifi over a 100 square kilometer area through the Olympics an this will be the biggest Wi-Fi network in China. From there it will expand by next year to 625 square kilometers next year and by 2010 Beijing’s entire city center and the rural areas surrounding the city will be covered.

Tests so far have not been overly encouraging with the Beijing office of the Wall Street Jornal, located within a covered area, only one bar of signal was detected and it wasn’t possible to connect. Media blog Danwei reported access trouble, and a Sina.com report noted that in Beijing’s hi-tech district, Zhongguancun, the signal only worked outdoors.

Sadly, there will be no 3G cellular service except perhaps that based in testing mode on TD-SCDMA, the home standard, despite past pledges from officials. Since China hasn’t issued any 3G licenses for networks using the two international kinds of 3G technology, the networks haven’t been built.

The government has said that 3G services using China’s homegrown TD-SCDMA technology will be available in time for the Games — but overseas visitors phones are not compatible with that standard.
Source: Wall Street Journal Blog