Chinese-developed 3G mobile standard TD-SCDMA did not perform well in a technical trial sponsored by the government, according to various sources.

The disappointing news may dash hopes the standard would be a great success, and adds uncertainty to the granting of 3G licenses.

Sources say the so-called "intelligence" of the mobile terminals is said to have been the cause of the underperformance.

"The chips of TD-SCDMA mobile phones do not support well the 3G value-added applications," said a well-informed industry source.

Trials of the technology are being carried out by the China Academy of Telecommunications Research under the Ministry of Information Industry (MII).

During tests TD-SCDMA phones could only be used to make calls or send short text messages.

Less successful was sending multimedia messages, making video calls, downloading and playing video clips, which are key 3G applications, the source said.

TD-SCDMA also fell short of expectations in terms of the interoperability (IOT) between the terminals.

Wang Zhiqin, deputy director of the Institute of Communication Standard Research under the China Academy of Telecommunications Research, declined to comment, although she is a key engineer involved in the tests.

Industry insiders have been counting on the maturity of TD-SCDMA to speed up the 3G licensing timetable.

Government officials last year said all products related to TD-SCDMA would be ready for commercial use this month. Trials were expected to have been completed before the end of June.

But Tao Xiongqiang, former rotating president of TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance, said the field trial may be delayed.

But "it doesn't matter much if the trial is delayed by one or two weeks," Tao told China Daily in a telephone interview yesterday.

"The fact is that the government required all the products related with TD-SCDMA to be ready just for pre-commercial use. And mobile terminals are not included," he said.

"It will take a long time before the government announces the results of TD-SCDMA tests as we need time to analyze and discuss the tests and even decide whether extra tests are needed."

It will take an additional half a year to a year before TD-SCDMA mobile phones are ready to go to market, he added.

MII Spokesman Wang Lijian declined to comment on the possible delay.

A high-ranking official at Datang Mobile, the major developer of TD-SCDMA, said the company has yet to receive any notification of the delay from the government, which has thrown its weight behind the standard.

But it seems the development of TD-SCDMA has not lived up to initial expectations, said Beijing-based independent telecoms analyst Gary Cai.

The government is widely expected to award operators 3G licenses at the end of this year.

Cai believes the poor test results will undermine the regulators' confidence.

"The licensing scheme may be delayed," he said. "And the bottleneck of mobile terminals will continue to thwart the maturity of TD-SCDMA telephony."

Two other factors which may delay the licensing still further are the looming reshuffle of the domestic telecoms industry and the ongoing 3G-related intellectual property rights negotiations between foreign technology vendors and domestic firms.

Analysts expect the government will not hand out licenses before restructuring arrangements are finalized.

Government officials have complained some foreign technology vendors are asking Chinese firms for huge payments relating to 3G patents.

Insiders say the negotiations between the government and United States-based Qualcomm, which holds most of the CDMA and CDMA 2000 patents, have reached stalemate.

Cai said negotiations on 3G WCDMA intellectual property rights are also not going smoothly.

"Qualcomm monopolizes CDMA and CDMA 2000 patents. But WCDMA patents are being held by a great number of firms," he said.

Qualcomm also claims patents relating to the TD-SCDMA standard.

(China Daily June 22, 2005)