TD-SCDMA mass deployment in 2005

February 27, 2004

Chip developers for the Chinese 3G standard said its first products would be available by the end of 2004. Evan Yu, the Chief Executive of the consortium Commit, told Reuters that they aim to have their first commercial product by the end of the year and become the first TD-SCDMA chipset vendor in the market.

Texas Instruments' Asia President Terry Cheng said Thursday he expects the first batch of chips for TD-SCDMA wireless technology to be ready by the second quarter, and handsets based on this standard to be available next year. TI, which is part of the Commit consortium, is investing $28 million in TD-SCDMA.

The Chinese government has yet to award 3G licenses and has not indicated how many licenses they plan to issue. Analysts expect four licenses to be issued in the second half year of the year and operational commercial networks appearing in 2005. China had delayed the awarding of licenses until TD-SCDMA was more mature. The news that commercial TD-SCDMA products could be available later this year could indicate that the government is close to granting licenses.

Cheng said at a semiconductor conference in Shanghai that mass deployment of TD-SCDMA technology should take place in the second half of next year at the earliest.

Commit designs chipsets for TD-SCDMA handsets and other equipment, and includes companies such as China Putian, LG Electronics and Nokia.

Meanwhile, the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry announced that China expects to start 3G field tests next month. Deputy director of telecommunication standards, Wang Zhiqin, said WCDMA technologies will be tested first in March, followed by CDMA2000 in April and TD-SCDMA will be tested around May.