China Mobile expands TD-SCDMA coverage

Chinese vendors Datang Telecom, ZTE and Huawei were awarded the lion’s share of a massive contract to supply 12,000 base stations to support China Mobile’s TD-SCDMA 3G services.

Nokia, Sony Ericsson and Motorola could soon be launching TD-SCDMA handsets in China

Datang Telecom won around 40 per cent of the deal, followed by ZTE on 30 per cent, while Huawei received 20 per cent of the contract.

Ericsson publicly expressed its disappointment in receiving a smaller contract, along with Nokia Siemens Network.

The network extension will enable China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile operator with more than 441 million subscribers, to expand its coverage of TD-SCDMA to 38 cities in China by the end of June next year. Its coverage currently reaches 10 metropolitan areas.

Sony Ericsson and Motorola are currently in talks with China Mobile to manufacturer handsets based on China’s home-grown 3G wireless standard, while Nokia has stated it fully supports the development of TD-SCDMA and will introduce enabled devices into its product range.