China warns Ericsson, Nokia to 'get serious' on local 3G standard, or miss out

STOCKHOLM (Thomson Financial) - LM Ericsson AB, Nokia-Seimens and other foreign network vendors need to start taking China's home-grown 3G mobile standard more seriously, or risk missing out on the country's shift to 3G warned a senior Chinese industry official, reported China daily.

China's TD-SCDMA is set to dominate the country's 3G market but foreign companies have so far failed to get involved with the standard, said Chen Haofei, secretary-general of TD-SCDMA Forum.

'I believe many foreign companies have misjudged (the prospects of) TD-SCDMA,' Haofei told China Daily.

TD-SCDMA has lagged behind WCDMA and CDMA 2000 in the past but recent strong backing from the Chinese government has moved it forward and given it an edge over foreign standards said, Haofei.

'Foreign companies need to get serious about TD-SCDMA as they are less likely to get anywhere with WCDMA and CDMA 2000 in the near future,' warned Haofei.

China Mobile Communications Corp (CMCC) is currently expanding a trial of TD-SCDMA to six cities with a budget of 30 billion yuan for the expansion.

The Chinese government has yet to formally award operators licenses to build 3G networks. The resulting contracts are expected to be worth billions of dollars.

Haofei said the expanded TD-SCDMA trial is actually a soft launch of commercial 3G in China, something like 'doing it without licensing'.

Both Ericsson and Nokia had been betting on launching WCDMA in China, although they have tied up with some local companies in developing TD-SCDMA.

Except for Samsung, western handset makers are also yet to give full support to developing TD-SCDMA cell-phones. Motorola has developed a model based on the Chinese standard. Nokia and Sony Ericsson have adopted a wait-and-see policy.

Haofei said that in order to profit from the opportunities brought about by TD-SCDMA, 'foreign companies need to show a good attitude, at least to get a ticket to the TD-SCDMA game'.

Last update : 28-07-2007

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