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Chinese 3G may follow Europe
European standard preferred...
Chinese mobile companies are moving away from the homegrown standard for next generation phone services. They are now likely to use the standard - TD-SCDMA - to support the rival European standard WCDMA.
If, as is predicted, the government awards four licenses or less then no operator will adopt TD-SCDMA only for a national network. The claim comes from Siemens CEO Lothar Pauly, talking in today's Financial Times.
"If it is four licenses or less than four, which is the most likely outcome, then I think there will be no operators who will go for TD-SCDMA only, "he said. All these operators, or at least most, will use WCDMA and they will use TD-SCDMA as a complementary technology." Siemens is the largest foreign investor in the Chinese standard.
The Chinese government still has to decide how licenses will be awarded.
The comments come in the wake of disappointing trials for the homegrown mobile standard. ®
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