Saturday, November 22, 2008

China Mobile Ramps Up 3G Launch as Nokia Jumps Aboard

China's bid to establish its own next generation mobile phone technology standard got a boost from the world's biggest cell phone maker.


China Mobile Ltd (NYSE:CHL), the worlds' largest mobile provider, is getting support from Nokia Corp (NYSE:NOK), to launch handsets by the end of 2009 based on the Chinese 3G technology known as TD-SCDMA. The new dual-band phone will also be compliant with the more globally adopted GSM standard.


The announcement on Wednesday, which also reaffirms Nokia's support for the standard, comes amid reports that China Mobile is in talks for similar deals with other handset makers including U.S.-based Motorola Inc(NYSE:MOT) and joint-venture Sony Ericsson a company owned by Sony Corp. (NYSE:SNE) and Ericsson AG (Nasdaq:ERIC).


China Mobile, which hopes to launch the new 3G network by mid-2009, began testing the 3G technology this year in several cities, including a high profile trial this summer with Samsung Electronics Co. during the Beijing Olympics. China Mobile is preparing to launch the second phase of its 3G network expansion to a total of 38 cities from the current 10.


Nokia president Colin Giles reaffirmed his company's commitment to the new technology at the Mobile Asia Congress in Macau.


"Nokia firmly supports the development of TD-SCDMA. Our goal is to not only develop TD-SCDMA products that can deliver outstanding user experiences to consumers, but also to work with operators, chipset providers, developers and all parties along the value chain to support the creation of a vibrant TD-SCDMA ecosystem in China."


Nokia said the new phone will run its Symbian mobile operating system using the s60 smartphone software platform. Nokia emphasized millions of developers use Symbian with over 10,000 third party applications on the platform commercially available.


China Mobile chief executive Wang Jianzhou said the company was "very excited" to hear the announcement calling Symbian a "mature and leading" system that would enhance the operator's offerings.


"We look forward to working together with Nokia to further drive TD-SCDMA development in China," he said.


Source : http://www.ibtimes.com/