BEIJING, July 9 -- Mobile phone manufacturer TCL Communication Technology Holdings Ltd., a subsidiary of TCL Corporation, will produce trial TD-SCDMA handsets by this October, according to a TCL Communication announcement last week.

The production will be implemented through cooperation between TCL Communication's wholly owned subsidiary JRD Communication (Shenzhen) Ltd. (JRDC) and the TCL Technology Center, which is a 100 percent-owned subsidiary of TCL Corp.

Pursuant to the agreement, the TCL Technology Center will develop the TD-SCDMA handsets models, while JRDC will pay 3 million yuan (US$394,400) to the technology center and will also provide the center with access to a mobile communications platform and structural information about certain handset models, as well as arrange trial production and network entry testing for the models.

JRDC will also be responsible for the manufacture and sales of the TD-SCDMA handsets based on the models developed by the technology center.

The TCL Technology Center will develop about 50 handsets in the first phase of trials, scheduled to finish in October, and will then produce another 200 sets after the models pass the Ministry of Information Industry's network entry test.

These TD-SCDMA handsets are mainly meant for the upcoming bidding for TD-SCDMA terminals by China Mobile. If TCL Communication wins the tender to produce handsets for the carrier, the company will start large-scale production of TD-SCDMA handsets, Chinese-language newspaper the China Business News cited a TCL Communication official as saying.

TCL Communication completed its purchase of 147.5 million shares in JRDC and made the company a wholly owned subsidiary Tuesday.

TD-SCDMA is China's homegrown 3G standard, currently under trial and expected to be put into commercial use next year.

China Mobile, China Telecom and China Netcom will this year deploy large-scale TD-SCDMA trial networks in 10 Chinese cities. They plan to complete the trial networks in October, and will then begin to procure 2 million to 3 million TD-SCDMA mobile phones, according to the TD-SCDMA Forum.

(Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies)