China will soon begin building a national network for 3G mobile phones based on a home-grown standard. This is expected to bring the government closer to issuing the long-awaited licences for the new technology. The Ministry of Information Industry has stated that the TD-SCDMA technology has been selected as a national standard and network construction will begin shortly.
The announcement implies that China will begin awarding licences for 3G wireless services, with the domestic standard potentially getting a headstart over the two most widely accepted global standards ?? WCDMA and CDMA 2000.
