China's Datang Telecom, a developer of the country's indigenous technology for third-generation (3G) mobile communication, will receive a bank loan of 30 billion yuan (US$3.9 billion) to build TD-SCDMA networks.

 

The loan from the China Development Bank will provide long-term financial support for the construction of large-scale TD-SCDMA networks, including in Olympic venues such as Beijing and Qingdao.

 

Industry insiders believe the loan will help ease the financial bottleneck that has long bedeviled Datang, which co-developed TD-SCDMA together with the China Academy of Telecommunications Technology and Siemens.

 

In May 2000, the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) recognized TD-SCDMA as one of the world's three official 3G standards. The other two are Europe's WCDMA and North America's CDMA 2000.

 

The Chinese government approved last month the use of the European and American standards in China.

 

China has recently spent tens of billions of yuan extending TD-SCDMA trials from five to 10 cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Guangzhou, where the 3G service will be opened to the public in the fourth quarter this year.

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 21, 2007)