Telecommunication News
- China Mobile tests 3G mobile handset
Date: 28-Nov-2007 Sources: (Shenzhen Daily)
CHINA'S largest mobile phone network operator was testing one of the first handsets designed for China's 3G (third generation) network that runs Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.0 OS, an executive at the network said Monday.
China Mobile expects to finish installing 3G networks in eight cities by the end of this year and at least 10 by the time the Summer Olympic Games open in Beijing next August. It is testing dozens of handsets for the networks, which are based on a home grown technology called TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access).
Among the phones being tested is the S876 from Taiwan's Inventec Appliances (IAC), which may become the first 3G handset running Windows Mobile 6.0 to be launched in China. While it's hard to definitively hand the crown to IAC, it was the only handset maker to offer details of a finished device at the GSM Association's Mobile Asia Congress in Macao earlier this month.
An official at China Mobile confirmed the handset was being tested, and an IAC executive sent photos and further details of the phone to the IDG News Service. However, other handset makers, including Zhejiang Holley Communications (Holley Comm), had said they were working on Windows Mobile 6.0-based 3G handsets for China as well.
IAC's S876 would be available to Chinese users in the second quarter of 2008, said Steven Qin, an executive in charge of smartphones at IAC's Shanghai operations.
Most mobile phone companies in China haven't announced plans for their 3G networks yet and the nation hasn't even said when a 3G license auction might be held. However, officials from China Mobile and various equipment makers said at the Mobile Asia Congress they expected services to be available in time for the Olympics.
China had the world's largest base of mobile phone users, 523.3 million, at the end of September, according to the Ministry of Information Industry.
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