TD-SCDMA supporters push for low-end handsets

Even though 3G licenses haven't been issued in China, an alliance backing the local standard is trying to figure out a way to make TD-SCDMA phones as cheap as $100.

The hope is to make them more competitive against a wider range of handset models for wideband-CDMA and CDMA2000 1x EVDO. There is no schedule for getting handsets into the $125 to $100 range, or whether subsidies will be used to accomplish the goal.

The TD-SCDMA Alliance is taking a page from a similar alliance formed in 2006 that aims to reduce the cost of wideband-CDMA phones. Nine companies, including China Mobile, Hutchison Whampoa Telecom and Vodafone, joined the "3G For All" project to promote a $100 wideband-CDMA handset.

When it first came out, one of the barriers to quick adoption for wideband-CDMA was high handset pricing. Still, the TD-SCDMA Alliance is exploring the feasibility of driving prices down faster than is usual to ensure that the local standard has a fighting chance against its more mature competitors, according to reports from state-owned media.

China's TD-SCDMA standard has long been considered the underdog standard because of the smaller amount of R&D funds invested in it and its relative immaturity compared with wideband-CDMA and CDMA2000 1x.

China is expected to have 3G in place by the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

- Cai Yan
EE Times