Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news

An industry alliance to boost China-developed third-generation telecommunication standard Time Division - Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) is considering the building of a testing network in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province, to attract more phone makers to join the alliance, China Business News reported today.

This network, estimated at an investment of over 5 million yuan (US$641,026), will add the number of China's regional TD-SCDMA networks to six, with the other five in Beijing, Shanghai, Baoding, Qingdao and Xiamen.

The Shenzhen network will resemble that of the application and development center of Hong Kong Cyberport, a landmark project aiming at creating an interactive environment that will be home to a strategic cluster of about 100 IT companies and 10,000 IT professionals. 

The timetable is not settled for the network.

Telecom expert Li Jinliang regarded the new network as an initiative to substantiate the TD-SCDMA industrial chain.

“TDIA, now embracing only a score of phone makers, are eager to attract more domestic manufactures to jointly tap the China-developed 3G technology," he said.

Home to nearly 140 phone companies, Shenzhen is a phone making base in China. Those with licenses to make phones account for over 30 percent of the nation's total.

Phone makers echoed Li's observation.

Compared with other matured CDMA standards, TD-SCDMA still lags behind in the industrial chain, according to Lu Renhua, senior engineer with ZTE Corp's WCDMA division.

Building a network in Shenzhen is expected to help more phone makers know about and master TD-SCDMA technologies.

Datang Telecom Technology and Industry Group develops TD-SCDMA technology, which joins the European WCDMA and the US CDMA 2000 as the world's three most popular CDMA standards.

Though the Chinese telecom authority has been highly expected to favor the Chinese developed TD-SCDMA standard, its long suspension of issuing the 3G license has clouded the 3G market.

Industry insiders are taking a wait-and-see attitude before the first license is given out and then it will be decided upon which standards will be chosen.

The latest word came as the authority will formally announce the issuance of the long-awaited 3G license, most likely of the TD-SCDMA standard, by March.