14 DAY TRIAL // China's Ministry of Information has accepted the European and American standards for 3G (third generation) mobile phones. Their decision will widen the area of possibilities that Chinese mobile phone users will have when it comes to mobile data processing.
This comes after China has refused two years ago to accept these standards and has decided to develop one of its own, called TD-SCDMA. The decision to finally take in the foreign solutions for 3G services comes as a surprise, considering the fact that their already developed personal standard will be at risk for a profit drop.
"We will let operators choose which standard they want to use. But the government will decide how many 3G licences are issued", declared Xi Guohua, Vice Minister of Information Industry. For now, the European and American 3G standards represent a huge step ahead, even though there are low hopes for further permissiveness coming from China's Ministry of Information.
"The three standards will enable 3G mobile phone manufacturers and operators to reach consensus in defining the demand for products, cooperating in developing relevant apparatus, as well as integrating and applying the technological system", the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry recently informed on their website.
All the four major Chinese operators have been invested in 3G in the last years. Now, the decision to accept both European WCDMA and American CDMA2000 3G standards comes on time as to provide all the necessary mobile services until next year's Beijing Olympics.
Even more, this proves to be a good chance for different technologies to develop on a free market with a much wider range of possibilities. Yang Peifang, secretary general of the ministry's telecommunication economist panel said: "The introduction of the other two standards will help improve TD- SCDMA".
It is a highly optimistic perspective on the matter, as China's 3G depends mostly on the multimedia solutions and on reliable data transfer.
Third generation technology is capable of providing better reception, faster access to Internet, as well as video conferencing.