BEIJING -(Dow Jones)- China won't favor any third-generation mobile phone standard when it issues 3G licenses, and will let telecommunications operators choose which standard to use, according to a statement on the U.S. Trade Representative Web site.
The Chinese government restated its 2004 U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade commitment to technology neutrality for 3G standards, said the statement, which summarized a JCCT meeting this week.
China agreed "to ensure that telecommunications service providers will be allowed to make their own choices as to which standard to adopt, and to issue licenses for all 3G standards in a technologically neutral manner," said the statement, which was dated Tuesday.
Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi met U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman in Washington this week to ease bilateral tensions ahead of President Hu Jintao's trip to the U.S. later this month.
China's locally developed standard, Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access, or TD-SCDMA, will compete with two other 3G standards, Wideband CDMA and CDMA2000.
Analysts have said China, which has the world's largest mobile phone market by users, will favor TD-SCDMA against the wishes of some Chinese telecoms operators.
China Mobile, the larger of China's two mobile phone operators by users, has said it prefers WCDMA over TD-SCDMA because it can use its existing network equipment on a WCDMA network. China Unicom is China's other mobile phone operator.
China is expected to issue 3G licenses this year, which could lead to tens of billions of dollars' worth of investment in mobile-phone network equipment.
-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 13th April 2006
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/16968.php