France Telecom Beijing R&D Co., Ltd. recently joined the TD-SCDMA Forum to become the first foreign telecom in the China-developed 3G standard camp, said sources with the Forum Thursday.

 

Analysts said the move by France telecom, the second largest mobile operator in Europe, indicates that overseas operators have begun to keep a close eye on TD-SCDMA, a new third generation (3G) mobile communication technology developed by Chinese companies.

 

Along with France Telecom, Agilent Technologies, FiberHome Technologies and Infineo also became new members of the forum.

 

The new members will help improve TD-SCDMA technology, push forward its commercialization and promote international cooperation on the technology, said Wang Jing, secretary general of the Forum.

 

In competition with two other international standards -- WCDMA and CDMA2000 -- the technology has experienced hard times since the day it was born.

 

"TD-SCDMA was almost unknown to the overseas telecom companies. When they talked of 3G they meant WCDMA in Europe and CDMA2000 in America," said Wang.

 

As the technology matured and the Chinese government gave both funding and preferential policies, TD-SCDMA became well known among foreign companies.

 

"They began to seek more information about TD-SCDMA, which will help them to make policies on future development," said Wang.

 

No company can risk ignoring the world's largest mobile market where TD-SCDMA will definitely have an important seat, he said.

 

TD-SCDMA is in its final testing stage before commercial use. As the government develops its policy on 3G licensing and more companies show their support for TD-SCDMA, industry insiders are more optimistic about the China-developed 3G technology.

 

As an important organization pushing forward internationalization of the 3G technology, the TD-SCDMA Forum has over 430 members, including operators, system providers, content providers, financial institutions and research academies.

 

(Xinhua News Agency May 26, 2006)