TD-SCDMA, a new technology for China Mobile subscribers (China)China Mobile has become the very first operator to secure the membership of the TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance (TDIA), as reported by Xinhua news agency.According to the reports last month, China’s Ministry of Information and Industry (MII) ordered China Mobile to sign-up more than 100 million subscribers to its TD-SCDMA services in the next three years. TD-SCDMA technology, a homegrown mobile standard that may be used as a commercial 3G technology once national licenses are allocated, will be tested by China Mobile across eight cities where TD-SCDMA networks will be deployed during the Beijing Olympic Games this August. TD-SCDMA is a rival 3G technology to globally deployed commercial standards W-CDMA and CDMA2000 1xEV-DO.
Meanwhile, in an attempt to improve the sales of the device both before and during olympics, China Mobile intends to subsidise TD-SCDMA handsets, notes Digitimes. Sources of Digitimes state, that the operator will subsidise purchase of the handsets by US$146-219 (1,000-1,500 yuan) each, nearly 60% of the total price and China Mobile will able to “absorb” the cost of a few TD-SCDMA services during the Olympics. According to the reports, the operator placed an initial order of 60,000 handsets, and has recently finished a second procurement of 200,000 units. A third order of 40,000 handsets, incorporating China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting technology for mobile TV services, is reported to be planned.
