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China's 3G standard marks handset milestone
By Sumner Lemon

In a move expected to boost the prospects of China's homegrown 3G (third-generation) mobile standard, four cellular handsets based on the technology will be demonstrated in Beijing on Friday, according to the company that supplied chipsets for the phones.

Lenovo Group Ltd., LG Electronics Inc., DBTel Inc. and Ningbo Bird Co. Ltd. will demonstrate handsets based on TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) chipsets from Commit Inc., the Shanghai-based chipset vendor said. In addition, these companies and others will display 10 prototype handsets based on Commit's chipset, it said.

These are the first phones to be produced using Commit's two-chip TD-SCDMA chipset and the announcement marks an important milestone for the company, according to Andy Yang, the director of Commit's Marketing Department.

Commit was established in 2002 to develop TD-SCDMA chipsets. The company is backed by more than 15 investors, including LG, Texas Instruments Inc., Nokia Corp. and others. The company plans to introduce a single-chip TD-SCDMA chipset during the first half of next year, Yang said. A single-chip offering will require less space, allowing smaller handset designs, and consume less power.

TD-SCDMA was largely developed in China and is expected to be one of several 3G technologies rolled out in China when the country issues 3G licenses. China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII), which oversees the country's telecommunication services industry, is expected to issue 3G licenses later this year.

However, the exact role that TD-SCDMA will play when China rolls out 3G services is unclear. "One of the key obstacles has been getting handsets ready that support the technology," said Ted Dean, managing director of BDA China Ltd., in Beijing.

So far, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. is one of the few companies to have introduced TD-SCDMA handsets and these are being used in ongoing trials of TD-SCDMA networks, Dean said. "Any more handsets that come into the market, any more vendors that are supporting the technology on the handset side definitely helps," he said.

Posted April 22, 2005 01:07 PM |