China's telecommunications authority has revamped the frequencies for the China-developed third-generation telecom standard TD-SCDMA, an official with the State Development Planning Commission confirmed last Thursday.

A recent report circulated industry-wide said frequencies of 800Mhz would be assigned to the standard Time Division - Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access, replacing the current frequency of 2GHz.

On condition of anonymity, the SDPC official, quoted by Friday's Beijing Daily Messenger, did not deny the report, but said, "it is likely. you will know the details at the right time."

Reportedly, China's telecom authority will allocate three bands of frequencies to TD-SCDMA: 1,880 MHz-1,920 MHz, 2,010 MHz-2,025 MHz and 2,300 MHz-2,400 MHz.

Frequencies for the other two widely applied CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) standards, CDMA2000 and W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) will remain the current 2GHz.

The frequency revision indicates the Chinese government's strong intention to support TD-SCDMA technologies and its full confidence in the China-patent standard, industry insiders pointed out.

Wireless signals of 800MHz can transmit farther than those of 2GHz and can even travel around the back of a building.  This technology, by expanding the coverage of base stations, requires fewer base stations and thus reduces the equipment investment.  It also saves power use for handsets.

SDPC has submitted the frequency-plotting proposal to the State Council, China's Cabinet, for approval.  If approved, the new frequencies will be tested for commercial use as of March next year and officially introduced in June.

Testing locations may include Shanghai and six other cities in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Guangdong Provinces.

SDPC official declined to comment on another report that China would adopt various 3G standards for mobile telecom operators.

According to the report, China Mobile Communications Corp will adopt W-CDMA standard, China United Telecommunications Corp will use CDMA2000, while China Telecommunications Corp and China Network Communications Group Corp will operate TD-SCDMA. China Railway Communication Co., Ltd. and China Satellite Communications Corp will not be granted 3G business licenses.

(Shanghai Daily December 6, 2004)