A forum organization was kicked off Monday in Shanghai to boost the development of technology beyond the third generation mobile communication (3G).

The organization, or namely Future Mobile Communication Forum, has 26 co-founders including nine multinationals, Siemens, Nokia, Ericsson, Philips, Shanghai Bell-Alcatel, Motorola, Sumsung, France Telecom and NTT Docomo from Japan.

Four Chinese telecom operators of China Telecom, China Mobile, China Netcom and China Unicom are also members of the forum, along with domestic equipment manufacturers of Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd, ZTE and Datang Telecom.

"The forum symbolizes that the future development of mobile communication technology following 3G has aroused the attention from the telecom operators and the manufacturers," said Wen Ku, official with the Ministry of Information Industry.

Future mobile communication would be even more complicated than 3G and the forum would set up a platform of communication for various companies and research institutes, Wen said.

Beyond 3G could provide high-quality image transmission at a price as low as fixed-line Internet, said Zhou Hong, vice president of Huawei. He said Huawei spent 15 percent of its annual sales on research and development of future technologies including Beyond 3G and the company is making great investment in the new technology.

China, which began to study beyond 3G technology in 2001, has made breakthroughs in key areas. According to the present research, new technologies could realize a transmission speed 5-10 times faster than under the 3G technology, said You Xiaohu, director of National Mobile Communication Research Laboratory.

At the end of this year or early next year, he noted, China will set up a test bed for Beyond 3G in Shanghai and will offer wireless transmission with a speed between 100 Mbps and 1G by 2010.

China's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2012) on national economy and social development still under making would give priority to the technology, said You.

Headed by the International Telecom Union, the concerned countries have reached an agreement on the future development of "Beyond 3G". Its frequency spectrum will be set at the world wireless conference, to be held in 2007.

Experts said the next five years would be a crucial period for the formation of a Beyond 3G standard and the technology is expected to be commercialized in 2015.

(Xinhua News Agency October 18, 2005)