Recruiting in China

CHINA will be "technologically neutral" when choosing standards for high-speed wireless services in the world's biggest mobile market by users, Xi Guohua, a vice minister at the Ministry of Information Industry, said yesterday.

China approved the domestically developed time division synchronous code division multiple access, or TD-SCDMA, in January 2006 as a standard for third-generation services. The government has said it is considering two other technologies, wideband CDMA, or WCDMA, and CDMA2000, for 3G, which allows video conferencing and faster downloads of songs on to handsets.

"We will treat WCDMA and CDMA2000 equally," Xi said at the Boao Forum held in southern China's Hainan Island. "It has nothing to do with supporting a locally developed standard."

Telecommunication equipment makers such as Ericsson AB are awaiting China's issuance of 3G licenses to spur spending on networks, Bloomberg News reported. The government has said 3G services will be available for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, without giving a more detailed time frame or saying which other standards it will adopt.

No timetable

Xi reiterated that the government doesn't have a specific timetable. The issuance of 3G licenses isn't dependent on the outcome of a trial of TD-SCDMA being carried out by China Mobile Communications Corp, Xi said.

China will consider the maturity of the technology and how starting 3G services will affect the competitiveness of the domestic telecommunications market, Xi said. The government is hastening plans to reorganize the industry, he said.

Xi's comments come after European Union Media Commissioner Viviane Reding on April 12 cited the same pledge by China's Information Industry Minister Wang Xudong to be "technologically neutral" and to issue more than one 3G license.

Most 3G networks in Europe are based on WCDMA.