Foreign visitors to the Beijing Olympics will not be able to use their third-generation mobile phones, but they can hire them from China Mobile and use the country's homegrown technology, a senior official said yesterday.

WCDMA and CDMA 2000 are two popular 3G standards worldwide, but China has yet to adopt them, which means foreign visitors cannot enjoy the service based on the two platforms, Vice-Minister of Industry and Information Technology Xi Guohua told a press conference.

But to fulfill the country's promise to provide 3G services during the Games, Xi said foreigners can hire a 3G handset with TD-SCDMA, a standard developed in China and is now under commercial trials in 10 mainland cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Qingdao and Tianjin.

"China Mobile would be happy to hire out such a handset to any foreign visitor," Xi said.

He said the TD-SCDMA network in the trial cities has covered 95 percent of the areas that the GSM network - a dominant 2G technology in China - can cover.

Wang Jianzhou, chairman of China Mobile, the country's top wireless operator, said two weeks ago that his company plans to offer at least 20,000 3G handsets for hire during the Games.

Xi said China is expected to complete the restructuring of its telecommunications industry within six months to improve competitiveness in the sector.

"Once the restructuring process is completed, we'll start to issue 3G mobile licenses," he said.

To ensure smooth telecom connections during the Games, Xi said China Mobile and China Netcom, two partners of the Games, have made great efforts to expand their network capacities, but "there might be temporary congestions if the data flow rises suddenly".

For example, he said, if tens of thousands of spectators call at the same time when the opening ceremony is over, the line could become very busy.

"Such a short congestion time will be allowed, but a system collapse won't be tolerated," Xi said.

He also said his ministry is working closely with subway management authorities in Beijing to offer mobile phone services for passengers.

Currently, subway travelers cannot use their handsets because the phones' wireless frequency might affect the subway's dispatch signals.

However, Xi said the problem might be solved soon as "a major technological breakthrough has been made".

(China Daily July 18, 2008)