The Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd signed an agreement yesterday with the Shanghai Qingpu Industrial Zone to set up an industrial park there.
Tang Ru'an, chief operating officer of Datang Mobile, said: "It's part of our strategy to accelerate the development of our TD-SCDMA project."
The TD-SCDMA (time-division synchronous code-division multiple-access) system developed by Datang Mobile is one of three global standards for the third generation of mobile telecommunications.
According to Tang, the park will be a comprehensive one, covering research and development, manufacturing, testing, training and customer services.
"With the park there, we aim to enhance our efficiency and help boost the city's electronics sectors such as the integrated-circuit and software industries," Tang said.
Analysts pointed out that Datang badly needs to speed up the commercialization of its TD-SCDMA system.
In January, the company established a joint venture with the Philips Electronics Co and Samsung Electronics Co in Beijing.
The joint venture will produce TD-SCDMA chips and reference designs for the Datang TD-SCDMA mobile standard.
It will also license hardware and software designs to handset manufacturers.
"TD-SCDMA has technical advantages for users, such as greater capacity and spectrum efficiency," said Tang.
Analysts said they expect the government to award the TD-SCDMA system a third-generation mobile licence later this year or in 2004 as well as to the more mature standards, the United States-based CDMA 2000 system and the European WCDMA (wideband CDMA) system.
The two rival systems have already gone into commercial operation in some countries.
Tang predicted that the TD-SCDMA system will enter the market early next year.
(People's Daily March 5, 2003)
