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Ericsson 'in talks' on standard trials

By Li Weitao (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-01-31 09:18

But a slew of foreign vendors have joined the TD-SCDMA camp due to the Chinese government's increasing support of the home-grown standard. Government officials said they hoped the standard would hold a third of China's 3G market.

Many have chosen to get a leg up by forming joint ventures with local vendors. Siemens is partnering with Huawei, Alcatel with Datang, and Nokia with Potevio, previously known as Putian.

In May 2005, Ericsson formed a strategic alliance with China's No 2 telecom equipment maker ZTE to jointly develop TD-SCDMA. But the alliance was largely based on an OEM (original equipment manufacturing) relationship.

"In fact, Ericsson has adopted a 'wait-and-see' attitude toward TD-SCDMA," the industry source said.

Carl-Henric Svanberg, president andchief executive officerof Ericsson, earlier said that TD-SCDMA may not be able to grab a large market share.

Ericsson's increasing willingness to develop TD-SCDMA underscores a growing possibility that China Mobile could operate 3G networks based on TD-SCDMA.

                                                                       (China Daily 01/31/2007 page13)