China Still Pushing TD-SCDMA

May 11, 2004: source - BWCS

Never happy being made to kow-tow to the west, it appears that China has quickly reneged on any implied promise not to develop its own 3G standards. Barely two weeks ago, the PRC seemed to bow to US pressure and agree not to go it alone with its own WiFi and 3G mobile standards. Now, it appears that Beijing is happily steering a new path all of its own.

At the end of April, Chinese officials finally signed an accord with the US Trade Department to drop two indigenous wireless technologies. At the time some wondered how lasting and binding the agreement would be. Now it appears we have the answer - not very.

After agreeing not to push ahead with their own home-grown WAPI 802.11 encryption systems for WiFi technology or the Chinese-specific 3G technology TD-SCDMA, it looked like the People's Republic was about to join the rest of the world and allow mobile operators to choose between the twin CDMA 2000 and W-CDMA mobile technologies which dominate the rest of Asia and Europe.

However, Chinese news agency Xinhuanet has now announced the birth of a new processor for mobile phones in China, from Spreadtrum. The chip, which has the backing of the Chinese ministries for IT and Science, has been heralded as "a breakthrough for the industrialisation of the TD-SCDMA standard." This new development has led many in the industry to doubt how serious Beijing's stated intention to "support technology neutrality with respect to the adoption of 3G" really is. As ever, it seems, the country's rulers are prepared to play the long game - keeping the US happy but maintaining progress on China's own indigenous (and preferred) solution.