The government sent out a strong message yesterday that it will enhance its support of the home-grown TD-SCDMA (time division synchronous code division multiple access) system to better position itself in the global telecom market.

"We are attaching great importance to TD-SCDMA, and will spare no effort to further explore the commercialization of the 3G (third generation) standard," said Zhang Xiaoqiang, secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission yesterday at the ongoing TD-SCDMA Forum, which ends today in Beijing.

"We will continue to support TD-SCDMA and encourage more and more telecom-related enterprises both at home and abroad to participate in optimizing it," echoed Lou Qinjian, vice-minister of the Ministry of Information Industry (MII).

Organized by the TD-SCDMA Forum and the TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance, the event showcases the latest developments of the TD-SCDMA system and probes the business potential of the standard.

The home-grown TD-SCDMA system, together with the European WCDMA and US-based CDMA2000 systems are three 3G standards that have been acknowledged by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

But TD-SCDMA is regarded as less mature, compared with the other two standards.

"Nevertheless, TD-SCDMA has great market potential, given its advanced technology and rapid development," said Zhang Xinsheng, deputy director-general of the Technology Department of the MII.

He believed that to further develop TD-SCDMA and form the industrialization of the standard are the key tasks currently facing the system.

"The market for the TD-SCDMA system is not only confined to China, and its commercial value is for the whole world," said Zhu Gaofeng, director-general of China Communications Standardization Association.

Tang Ru'an, chief operating officer of China Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd, the main developer of the TD-SCDMA standard, has already formed an initial industrial chain as the system becomes more and more popular.

The company has joined forces with Siemens, Philips and Samsung, all world's major mobile communications players, to develop the new technology.

Last year, China set up an alliance of eight domestic firms to back the standard.

It is predicted that TD-SCDMA technology will go into large scale commercial use sometime in late 2004 or early 2005.

From a global perspective, analysts pointed out the 3G market has yet to ripen given unprofitable business models, scarce 3G terminals and a lack of attractive wireless data services.

Figures indicated that a total of 114 3G licences were issued worldwide by the end of last year. More than 100 experimental 3G networks were developed.

However, due to the unstable nature of high-tech stocks and enormous bidding fees for licences, most of the operators delayed their commercialization of 3G network.

"We should take advantage of the time delay to further boost the TD-SCDMA," said Zhang Qi, director-general of the Department of the Electronics and Information Product Administration under the MII.

Facing the lacklustre development of 3G in the international market, foreign telecom-related players have turned to the Chinese market to turn their 3G dreams into reality.

(China Daily August 29, 2003)