China Mobile will purchase 30,000 3G phones based on a
home-grown standard via a public bidding to begin tests on the
third generation network, the world's biggest cell phone carrier
said yesterday.
But the move doesn't mean that home-grown TD-SCDMA phones and
long-awaited services will be commercially used nationwide soon,
analysts said.
The telco will purchase 30,000 TD-SCDMA (time
division-synchronous code division multiple access) phones and
10,000 TD-SCDMA data cards to test the pilot network. Interested
firms have until Sunday to get the bid documents.
Gao Songge, a China Mobile's spokesperson, declined to reveal
the budget of the purchase and timetable.
Each TD-SCDMA model costs about 2,500 yuan (US$338) to 3,000
yuan.
China Mobile, which added an extra 6.5 million subscribers last
month, invested heavily to build TD-SCDMA networks in several
cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen as a preparation
for the Olympics next year.
"TD-SCDMA needs more time to become mature and it won't come
into mass construction before the end of next year," said Wang
Zhiguang, a telecommunications analyst at the Oriental
Securities.
ZTE, China's biggest telecom equipment maker, said yesterday it
will attend the bidding but it declined to reveal more details.
About 10 handset vendors, including ZTE, Datang Mobile, Lenovo
and Samsung, are involved, according to a industry official, who
declined to be identified.
(Shanghai Daily December 21, 2007)
