Ericsson, the world's largest telecom equipment manufacturer, is
in talks to participate in a new round of testing for China's
home-grown 3G (third generation) standard, an industry source
said.
That could boost the Chinese standard, TD-SCDMA, which has been
trying to catch up with rival foreign standards WCDMA and CDMA
2000.
Ericsson is now talking with China Mobile to provide equipment
to the TD-SCDMA trial networks in five cities including Guangzhou,
Shenzhen, Tianjin, Qinghuangdao and Shenyang, the source said.
Since March 2006, China Mobile, as well as fixed-line telephone
operators China Telecom and China Netcom, has been testing TD-SCDMA
in Xiamen, Baoding, Qingdao, Beijing and Shanghai.
Ericsson "is apparently seeking to play a role" in the next
round of tests, the source said.
Unlike WCDMA and CDMA 2000, TD-SCDMA has yet to be put into
commercial deployment and has lacked industry-wide support,
especially from Western manufacturers.
But a slew of foreign vendors have joined the TD-SCDMA camp due
to the Chinese government's increasing support of the home-grown
standard. Government officials said they hoped the standard would
hold a third of China's 3G market.
Many have chosen to get a leg up by forming joint ventures with
local vendors. Siemens is partnering with Huawei, Alcatel with
Datang, and Nokia with Potevio, previously known as Putian.
In May 2005, Ericsson formed a strategic alliance with China's
No 2 telecom equipment maker ZTE to jointly develop TD-SCDMA. But
the alliance was largely based on an OEM (original equipment
manufacturing) relationship.
"In fact, Ericsson has adopted a 'wait-and-see' attitude toward
TD-SCDMA," the industry source said.
Carl-Henric Svanberg, president and chief executive officer of
Ericsson, earlier said that TD-SCDMA may not be able to grab a
large market share.
Ericsson's increasing willingness to develop TD-SCDMA
underscores a growing possibility that China Mobile could operate
3G networks based on TD-SCDMA.
(China Daily January 31, 2007)