TD-SCDMA is stilling lagging behind in handset development, and greater participation from leading international handset makers would help resolve the issue, says the TD-SCDMA Forum.

TD-SCDMA general-secretary Wang Jing says there are currently 20 handset makers committed to providing over 40 models. Of these, only Samsung and LG are foreign vendors. 

“A major issue for TD-SCDMA is to ensure the stability, functionality and the price of the handsets, and involvement from international handset makers is key to resolving the issues,” Wang told a conference at PT ExpoComm in Beijing.

The lack of international support has put TD-SCDMA at a disadvantage in terms of quantity and quality compared with CDMA and W-CDMA, he says. These technologies have support from 100 handset makers worldwide and have 500 models and 1,000 models available in the market, respectively.

To gain wider support from foreign vendors, he urged the government and the operators to layout a clear strategy for TD-SCDMA and to provide market information - such as estimated handset demand for the next few years - so that vendors can make a business plan.

“This is a chicken and egg situation. Foreign vendors are now hesitant [to develop TD-SCDMA handsets] because there is no such information available to them.”

China Mobile currently is operating TD-SCDMA networks in 10 major cities, including Beijing. Wang said the networks altogether have about 16,000 base stations providing services to over 200,000 users.

Source:telecomasia.net