Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co and China International Telecommunications Construction Corp have signed an agreement that will help advance construction of the country's next-generation phone network, the companies said.

The deal, between China's flagship developer of its homegrown third-generation network, and the country's No. 1 telecom network construction firm, shows that the long-awaited issuance of 3G licenses is drawing near, industry insiders said.

Under the agreement, CITCC will produce TD-SCDMA - time division-synchronous code division multiple access - networks for Datang and will take charge of network maintenance. The deal shows that TD-SCDMA is fully ready for the commercial use and that trial service is on the schedule.

Initially, the trial TD-SCDMA network will involve 20,000 people in Shangdong Province's Qingdao and Baoding and Qinhuangdao in Hebei Province. The other two 3G candidate technologies are Europe-developed wideband-CDMA and United States-developed CDMA 2000.

China has delayed the issuance of 3G licenses several times as the government hopes to develop a mature homegrown 3G technology. The next-generation services, from video conferencing to film download and multi-player 3D games, are expected to create a huge new market for telecom equipment makers, mobile carriers and service providers.

Source:佚名