A multi-mode mobile phone that can automatically switch to a
Chinese home-grown 3G (third generation) telephony or several other
standards will go into mass production at the end of this year.
That would give a much-needed leg-up to the development of
China's TD-SCDMA, which has been playing catch-up with rival
foreign standards WCDMA and CDMA2000.
NXP Semiconductors, the former chip unit of Philips, and T3G
Technology, a joint venture between NXP, Samsung, Motorola and
China's Datang Mobile, have developed a chip for such phones.
"We expect the mass production of the multi-mode phones to begin
in December this year," Adrian Chu, vice-president of NXP China,
told China Daily yesterday.
An automatic switchover between TD-SCDMA and GSM/GPRS/EDGE
standards is crucial as it ensures subscribers can continue using
less advanced mobile phone services like GSM, GPRS and EDGE during
the early stages of 3G roll-outs.
That's a major breakthrough for TD-SCDMA as the lack of such
phones has been the biggest bottleneck thwarting the development of
the Chinese standard, said Zhang Daijun, chief technology officer
of T3G.
China Mobile is widely expected to start procuring TD-SCDMA
phones in October, with some estimating the volume to be around 2
million units.
Currently, T3G provides chips to its parents.
"In October, you will also see some domestic makers announce
using our chips for the multi-mode TD-SCDMA phones," Zhang
said.
(China Daily June 29, 2007)