China plays fair over 3G standard

In the development of China’s 3G licence strategy, the involvement of foreign telecoms companies has been uncertain as the government is seemingly plumping for a homegrown standard. Now the country’s Ministry of Information Industry has said the licenses will be technology-neutral.

According to reports in the Chinese press, the Ministry is considering established flavors of 3G alongside its own version, TD-SCDMA.

Xi Guohua, a vice minister at the Ministry of Information Industry, told the Shanghai Daily: “We will treat W-CDMA and CDMA-2000 equally. It has nothing to do with supporting a locally developed standard.” W-CDMA is traditionally favored in Europe and CDMA-2000 is used in the United States.

Source: ZDNet