SK Telecom, South Korea’s primary wireless operator, has teamed up with the Chinese government to jointly develop third-generation (3G) mobile technologies for the world’s most populous country. The Seoul-based carrier yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with China to cooperate in time division-synchronous code division multiple access (TD-SCDMA).
TD-SCDMA refers to China’s homegrown platform for 3G wireless telephony services, which the country looks to nurture as its major future mobile standard.
SK Telecom chief executive Kim Shin-bae said that the partnership amply demonstrates the company’s know-how and expertise in the telecom services.
“SK Telecom is the first foreign telecom service provider to establish a cooperative relationship with China on TD-SCDMA technologies. This signifies the full recognition of our technological prowess,” Kim said in a statement.
Under the hook-up, SK Telecom plans to deploy a TD-SCDMA experimental station in Pundang, south of Seoul, next year to carry out tests on the mobility-specific techniques.
Plus, the operator will establish a TD-SCDMA service center in China to pursue joint research in 3G multimedia services, value-added devices and platforms.
SK Telecom seeks to continue its business alliance with China, the country with the world’s biggest mobile customer base amounting to 380 million, in many fields other than TD-SCDMA.
“We have agreed on building a cooperative model with China for the telecom industry, for not only TD-SCDMA technologies but also beyond 3G standards,” SK Telecom spokesman Do Hoon said.
TD-SCDMAChina’s Datang Mobilecom has spearheaded the development of TD-SCDMA alongside such global powerhouses as Siemens and Samsung Electronics.
TD-SCDMA is one of three technologies that acquired recognition by the International Telecommunications Union as the next-generation mobile telecom standard.
The other two are CDMA2000, which SK Telecom commercially launched here in late 2000 for the first time in history, and wideband-CDMA.
TD-SCDMA allows communication of numerous subscribers by dividing a spectrum into time slots unlike other platforms, which use separate spectrums for wireless transmission and reception.
China has decided to select a TD-SCDMA technology-based 3G service provider before the 2008 Beijing Olympics and international behemoths are vying to join the project.
Up until now, Korean companies like Samsung Electronics and LG Electronics mostly attempted to advance into the handset business of TD-SCDMA.
Samsung, the world’s third-largest cell phone maker, set up a joint venture for TD-SCDMA chipset development together with Datang Mobilecom and Philips.
LG Electronics, the No. 4 player, also established a venture start-up for chipsets, called Commit, alongside Datang and Texas Instruments.
Recently, TD-SCDMA handsets manufactured by Samsung and LG have passed tests ordered by the Chinese government.
Source- http://times.hankooki.com
Technorati : 3G, China, Mobile, SK Telecom
Ice Rocket : 3G, China, Mobile, SK Telecom