France Telecom May Consider Using Chinese 3G System

BEIJING -(Dow Jones)- France Telecom's research unit in Beijing said Friday it is assessing China's locally developed 3G standard, which its parent company may consider using in Europe at a later date.

China's Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) standard uses a different frequency spectrum for mobile-phone calls and data transfers than the other two 3G standards, W-CDMA and CDMA2000.

France Telecom R&D Beijing's public relations manager, Li Juan, said research center applied to join the TD-SCDMA Forum, a group that promotes technical exchanges on the Chinese standard, earlier this month.

That application was approved by the forum Thursday, said a spokeswoman at the TD-SCDMA group.

"There is a possibility we will consider using TD-SCDMA in Europe when the frequency spectrum for WCDMA in Europe runs out of capacity," said Li.

France Telecom's wireless division, Orange, holds the frequency spectrum in Europe that supports TD-SCDMA, she said.

China is testing TD-SCDMA networks in several cities nationwide. But there are still no commercial networks based on the standard, which China helped develop and also wants to export.

France Telecomis the first overseas telecommunications operator to join the forum. The forum's spokeswoman, Zhang Lulu, said that reflects growing foreign interest in TD-SCDMA.

France Telecom cooperates with China Telecom, China's largest fixed-line operator by number of subscribers, to jointly buy telecoms equipment. Orange is planning to open an office in Beijing in June that will help local telecoms-equipment makers tailor products for Orange.

-By Terence Poon; Dow Jones Newswires; 8610 6588 5848; terence.poon@dowjones.com

-Edited by David Riordan

(END Dow Jones Newswires "

Posted to the site on 26th May 2006