China Denies Early 3G Move (Again)

March 30, 2005 - source: BWCS

The Chinese government has moved quickly to quash reports that it intends to award 3G licences as soon as May 17th (World Telecom Day). The story, which surfaced in several newspapers at the weekend, was described as "groundless" by a spokesperson for the department in charge of licence awards - the Ministry of Information Industry.

According to the Ministry, which is still conducting tests on three 3G standards, there is no set timetable for licence awards. However, Chinese trials of the home-grown TD-SCDMA, the European-backed W-CDMA and the US CDMA2000 systems are all due to terminate next month. Recently speculation has been mounting that the government would make an official announcement on future 3G plans at the end of these pilots.

The Chinese news Xinhuanet website this morning quoted Chen Jinqiao, director of the China Academy of Telecommunications Research, part of the Ministry of Information Industry, as saying that he believes the department is beefing up its 3G development strategies for this year by focusing more on 3G-related issues. Domestic and foreign operators and manufacturers, lured by the huge potential of the Chinese market, have long been clamouring for a definitive decision on 3G in China.

It is widely believed that the continuing delays in handing out franchises are mainly of benefit to the home-grown TD-SCDMA standard. In January of this year, the Minister of Information Industry Wang Xudong set pulses racing when he suggested that a decision would come sooner rather than later this year. The latest date denial from the same source seems to indicate that western interests will have longer to wait and TD-SCDMA backers will have still more time to get their house in order. The system is due to be commercially released in June of this year.