Chinese Vice Premier looks to domestic standard for 3G development

BEIJING, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Dejiang said Thursday the country should better promote its own technology standard for the third-generation (3G) high speed mobile communications.

The domestically-developed TD-SCDMA standard is a major milestone of innovation and will help boost the information service industry, expand domestic demand and stimulate economic growth, said Zhang during a visit to China Mobile, the country's biggest mobile operator.

He told China Mobile authorities to give priority to developing the TD-SCDMA standard to grab a big share in the 3G market.

China issued the long-awaited 3G licenses in January, with China Mobile getting the TD-SCDMA standard, China Telecom receiving a license for the U.S.-developed CDMA2000 and China Unicom getting permission to operate Europe's WCDMA.

By the end of this year, China Mobile is to invest 58.8 billion yuan (8.6 billion U.S. dollars) in building 60,000 new TD-SCDMA base stations covering 238, or 70 percent of, prefecture-level cities, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.