On October 19, WiMAX was officially approved by the
International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as the global standard
of the 3G industry. The impact on China's 3G standard, TD-SCDMA,
has aroused strong concerns among industrial players. TD-SCDMA
makes people uneasy.
"With WiMAX being approved as the global standard, it almost
completely blocks the international market for the TD-SCDMA
standard," wrote Xiang Ligang in his web blog. Xiang is the former
editor-in-chief of Communications World magazine. One
anonymous official from the Science and Technology Department under
China's Ministry of Information Industry said that they are doing
an assessment of the WiMAX endorsement.
Currently, the development of TD-SCDMA has entered a very
critical moment in China. The installment of China Mobile's
large-scale commercial network covering several provinces has drawn
to a close. Additionally, some of the TD-SCDMA commercial
applications are also available, according to information from the
TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance.
"WiMAX will not be a head-on rival of the TD-SCDMA," an unnamed
insider from Datang Telecom said in an interview with Caijing
magazine.
After WiMAX was approved as the international 3G standard, the
senior managers of the TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance privately
expressed their disapproval of the ITU's announcement. In 1997, an
agreement was promised by the ITU. It guaranteed that the future
global 3G standard selection would not consider any new
applications submitted after 1997, regardless of technical
advancement. The alliance members said that the ITU had shirked on
this agreement.
For more details, please read the full story in Chinese. (
http://www.caijing.com.cn/newcn/home/todayspec/2007-10-22/34664.shtml)
(China.org.cn October 23, 2007)
