News Analysis: homegrown 3G standard hopeful to be used in overseas market

Any news about TD-SCDMA is eye-catching on the eve of the launching of the third generation mobile communication (3G) market.

China's major telecom equipment manufacturer ZTE has obtained the contract to build a test network in Romania based on homegrown standard TD-SCDMA, said sources with the company.

If the network is successful, Romania would adopt TD-SCDMA, which would in return push forward the technology's progress in Europe," said Yang Hua, secretary-general of TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance.

Mixed opinions have accompanied TD-SCDMA from the day it was born. Despite a test result reported to be "satisfactory" by the concerned departments, the technology failed to convince overseas partners, or even local telecom operators.

Due to its late start, TD-SCDMA is in an unfavorable position and has not been commercially used in China. The technology appears to be quite weak in competition against the other two international standards, WCDMA and CDMA2000, in the overseas market.

ZTE's breakthrough in Romania this time can be considered the first "test" of China's homegrown standard by foreign telecom operators and also the starting point for TD-SCDMA to go to the world, said analysts.

As the spokesman for the TD-SCDMA camp, Yang strongly supports the technology's development outside of China, saying that there is market opportunity for TD-SCDMA not only in underdeveloped countries.

"Due to a frequency spectrum limit, the United States could not continue to expand the use of CDMA2000 and chose TDD spectrum," said Li Shihe, who is considered father of China's third mobile communication.

In the TDD spectrum, TD-SCDMA is the most mature technology. "The US's adoption of TD-SCDMA would be the most important part of TD-SCDMA's overseas market," said Li.

"As FDD spectrum resources are so crowded, TDD will be adopted sooner or later," said Yang.

The International Telecom Union defined the TDD and FDD frequency spectrum independently. Among the 120 3G licenses issued globally, 101 pieces are within the TDD frequency spectrum.

However, as Europe, the U.S., Japan and the Republic of Korea all began to offer 3G services several years ago, it is doubtful whether TD-SCDMA can break into their market as a latecomer.

Japanese and Korean telecom officials said they are unlikely to introduce TD-SCDMA because the investment based on the other two technologies is already large scale. As the application matures, new standards are hard to cut in, they said.

Japan and the ROK both have their own 3G models and it is of little possibility for them to adopt TD-SCDMA, said Zhou Huan, board director of Datang Telecom, a major developer of TD-SCDMA.

Zhou Huan said 3G development in the U.S. is limited by frequency spectrum resources, but it still has other options. Whether it would choose TD-SCDMA depends on the technology's commercial use status in China, Zhou said.

China's 1.3 billion population makes the country the world's largest mobile communication market. Based on the confidence, the Chinese government proposed its own standard to compete against CDMA2000 and WCDMA.

The TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance has grown from the original 8 domestic telecom companies in 2002 to 21 members with world leading companies in the field all included.

Even if TD-SCDMA does not enter the international market and is only developed domestically with policy support, multinational companies will not give up investment in the standard, said experts.

Source: Xinhua