Field tests of the Chinese-initiated third generation (3G) mobile communications system will start next week, an industry chief revealed Wednesday.

Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co Ltd President Tang Ru'an said the field tests, organized by the Ministry of Information Industry, will begin in Beijing and Shanghai next Thursday.

This development is taking place as the TD-SCDMA (time division synchronous code division multiple access) Industry Alliance is making increased progress.

"The test shows that product development on the TD-SCDMA standard has entered the final stage, reaching a critical moment in the preparations for its large-scale commercial launch," said Tang.

Datang Mobile's parent, the China Academy of Telecommunications Technology, pioneered the TD-SCDMA standard in 1998, which was approved in 2000 by the International Telecommunication Union as one of the three international 3G standards alongside the European-dominated wideband CDMA (WCDMA) and US-led CDMA 2000.

Tang said Datang Mobile will participate in the Beijing test with Nortel and Chinese telecom equipment vendor China Putian Corp and with Shenzhen-based equipment maker ZTE in Shanghai.

Datang Mobile will work on the operating side with China Netcom and China Railcom.

Siemens and Chinese telecom equipment giant Huawei Technologies are also likely to join the test, said Tang.

The test, which is scheduled to last until September, is expected to improve the capability of TD-SCDMA, said Tang.

"Many WCDMA networks are either under construction or operational in different parts of the world. TD-SCDMA has never undergone field tests, so this will be a good opportunity for us," said Tang.

Domestic companies including the vendors Lenovo and Ningbo Bird, German firm Siemens and Italian semiconductor maker STMicro are being organized by the Chinese Government and the industry alliance to work on a draft TD-SCDMA handset standard to solve the compatibility issue arising among different phone manufacturers.

The standard is expected to be drafted in June and submitted to the Chinese Government and the third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), an international 3G technical standard organization.

Datang Mobile, which unveiled the world's first TD-CDMA phone in March, will release a further two models this year to improve the standard's maturity.

Tang said that as TD-SCDMA technology matures, his company will shift its focus from technology research to business operations.

And the company has already started restructuring in order to shift more focus to the market.

Tang, who is also the vice-president of the Datang Telecom Technology and Industry Group, Datang Mobile's parent firm, said the two companies will invest as much as 1.2 billion yuan (US$145 million) in the development of TD-SCDMA including 200-300 million yuan (US$24-36 million) from the government.

He estimated his company will have a good possibility of breaking even in the next year if 3G is launched on a large scale in the second half of 2005.

The Chinese Government said last year that it would release 3G licenses no earlier than the second half of this year.

(China Daily May 13, 2004)