"The government should try to persuade more telecom enterprises to get involved in the TD-SCDMA (time division synchronous code division multiple access) system to enhance its competitiveness," experts said in a report made available to China Daily yesterday.

Developed by Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd, the TD-SCDMA is regarded as inferior compared with the other two 3G standards - the European-based WCDMA and the US-based CDMA2000 systems.

The report was made by the China Information Association (CIA) after a European trip in late April by a group of government officials, industry experts, and domestic telecom designers.

The group visited many leading European telecommunications companies such as Alcatel, Siemens and Ericsson.

The European WCDMA system will be introduced for large scale commercial use during the latter half of the year.

"Though WCDMA is maturing technically, we believe the real commercialization of WCDMA is likely to be postponed until the first half of next year, given the scarcity of applications and terminals," the report explained. "We should take advantage of the time delay to speed up the development of TD-SCDMA."

Sources from Datang said that TD-SCDMA technology would go into large scale commercial use sometime in the second half of 2004.

WCDMA is widely accepted as technically logical and easier for GSM (global system for mobile telecommunications) applications to progress into a 3G standard.

Besides WCDMA, the domestic TD-SCDMA has to face competition from CDMA2000 by Qualcomm Inc.

China Unicom, which has built a current generation CDMA network together with its GSM system, is expected to choose Qualcomm's CDMA2000 for its applications.

In an early report by Zhongxing Telecommunications, a leading telecoms gearmaker, China Telecom favours the WCDMA system as its 3G standard when securing a 3G licence.

The conclusion overturned analysts' projections that, as the country's largest fixed line operator, China Telecom would adopt the home-grown 3G standard TD-SCDMA.

According to the report, China Telecom is scheduled to build up a commercial 3G network mainly based on WCDMA technology operating in seven cities.

Meanwhile, it will be stepping up its efforts to synchronize its established businesses with 3G ventures.

Analysts expect the Ministry of Information Industry to grant 3G mobile licences either late this year or in 2004. Fixed-line operators China Telecom and China Netcom are expected to receive licences, along with China Mobile and China Unicom.

They also believe that China will consider both domestic and international standards when it issues 3G licences.

Analysts said China would need at least one of its two big fixed-line carriers to adopt the home grown TD-SCDMA system.

(China Daily June 24, 2003)