China Mobile Expanding its 3G Trial to More Cities

China Mobile Communications Corp, the parent company of Hong Kong listed China Mobile is planning to expand its TD-SCDMA 3G trials to more cities. The operator is currently trialling the network in eight cities, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen and Qinhuangdao.

"We are drafting plans to expand the commercial trial," president Wang Jianzhou told the South China Morning Post yesterday, adding that they have already invested some US$2 billion on its trial network. It is generally accepted that when 3G licenses are finally awarded, that China Mobile will be required to use the TD-SCDMA standard, as opposed to WCDMA or CDMA based services.

China Mobile Communications is also understood to be planning a tender for this second phase of its TD-SCDMA network rollout, but not until following this August's Olympic Games. It is unclear, but it is thought that the expansion will expand the network to a further twenty cities.

China's CCID Consulting issued a report earlier this year which predicted that the country would have 51 million TD-CDMA subscribers by 2011. CCID Consulting forecast that after an introduction period of deployment in 2008, TD-SCDMA will enter a peak period of deployment between 2009 and 2011.

China Mobile recently announced that  it plans to donate some 15,000 TD-SCDMA phones to the Beijing Olympics Organizing Committee.

However, there could be another factor in the delay for the network rollout - and that is reports coming from people testing the TD-SCDMA phones are less than impressed with the service.

"The battery only works for one day after each charge, much less than my previous Nokia phone," journalist Irene Zhou, who paid US$400 for a Samsung TD-SCDMA phone told the Shanghai Daily. Zhou, who often takes out-of-town business trip, expects a phone battery to last for about three days. There were also complaints about coverage, although that is more forgivable in a trial network.

On the web: South China Morning Post

Posted to the site on 2nd August 2008