China remains mum on 3G
Chinese government remains tight-lipped about its 3G licensing plans despite growing pressure
Follow @infoworldThe Big Wait continues: Xudong Wang, Minister of China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII), spoke about the growth of the country's communications sector, about the rollout of telecommunication infrastructure to rural areas and about the need to fight cybercrime.
But the high-ranking official, in his keynote speech Monday at the opening of the Telecom World event in Hong Kong, avoided discussing an issue of huge interest to many attendees: when and how the government plans to issue 3G (third-generation) mobile telecommunications licenses.
Manufacturers, operators, and millions of consumers in China eagerly await the arrival of high-speed mobile phone service in the world's largest wireless market. But the government, despite growing pressure to unveil its 3G plans ahead of the Olympic Games in 2008, remains tight-lipped.
At present, WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), which dominates Europe and huge chunks of Asia, the U.S.-supported CDMA 2000, and China's self-developed TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) are the three potential 3G standards for China.
TD-SCDMA has secured extended financial and policy support from the Chinese government. Insiders expect the government to begin issuing 3G licenses in early 2007 after the TD-SCDMA standard is ready for commercial deployment.
While Wang preferred to sidestep 3G in his keynote, Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Information Society and Media at the European Commission, chose to address the issue directly in her speech. "We are living in an open world," Reding said at the telecom event, organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a United Nations agency. "The government should not be setting standards, but should be providing the legal framework to create free and open competitive standard setting."
Reding's remarks mirrored the concerns of European WCDMA equipment makers, such as Nokia and Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, that worry about being locked out of China if the government favors the homegrown TD-SCDMA standard and local suppliers like ZTE that support it.
