The industrialization and research and development of all third generation (3G) mobile communication standards are coming along quite well, according to a high-ranking official with the Ministry of Information Industry (MII).

"The assessment of the 3G standards is coming to the final stage and we are happy to see the fast progress within the industrial chains," said Wen Ku, director-general of the MII's Science and Technology Division.

"We made especially great achievements in the homegrown TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) standard," he said yesterday at the 2005 Wireless Communications Applications Summit in Beijing.

However, 3G-related issues such as the location of base stations and functions of terminal handsets remain unresolved, he said.

China's 3G development strategies stirred up the market when the MII's Minister Wang Xudong stated that China was to offer 3G services before 2008 during the Fortune Global Forum last week in Beijing.

It was the first time Wang had revealed a timetable for the availability of 3G-based telecom services this year.

The MII's latest figures showed that China had signed up 353.7 million subscribers by the end of April.

"I rather believe that the best time to release 3G licences is next year," said Deng Shoupeng, executive chairman of the China Federation of IT Promotion.

He suggested that the Chinese Government roll out three different 3G licences nationwide, including WCDMA (wideband CDMA), CDMA 2000 and TD-SCDMA.

Shi Wei, an official with the Economic System and Management Institute under the National Development and Reform Commission, believed that the timetable for the issuance of 3G licences should be decided by the market.

(China Daily May 27, 2005)