China home grown 3G tech trial successful

And there's one more item that's looks set for commercial use in time for the Olympics and that's China's third generation telecom technology. The country's home grown 3G standard TD-SDMA received a boost Friday when network trials went off without a hitch.

China's Third Generation Mobile Telephony Association has been testing their system with the home-grown technology at a large scale among more than ten major cities around the country. Meanwhile, several CCTV reporters also tried out some video calls in Beijing. And they have found out the connection is good and steady.

Industry insiders say this marks the last test before the commercial promotion to end-users.

Yang Hua, Secretary General of China 3G Mobile Telecom Standards Associate said "China has been working hard to develop its own next generation telecom standard. Now we have our own patented TD-SCDMA standard, and we do not need to follow the US and the European standards any longer."

For years, the Chinese government has been backing the development of a home-grown standard for 3G mobile phones. The hope is to compete with the two Western-developed ones in terms of network speeds, greater voice capacity, and a range of interactive data features. Industry expert from Ernst & Young says Beijing's efforts is understandable.

China earlier in February issued the first TD-SCDMA licenses to ZTE, Hisense, LG, Lenovo, New Postcom and Samsung. Most are domestic telecom vendors. These suppliers are expected to take 60 percent of the total phone procurement value.