China's government is reported to be considering another delay in offering 3G licenses, partly to give more time for the home grown TD-SCDMA technology to iron out problems, and partly for economic reasons.

"It seems the government will not be in a hurry to issue 3G licences now," said Marvin Lo, a telecommunications analyst at Daiwa Institute of Research told the South China Morning Post. "The key point could still be the dependability of TD-SCDMA technology. It would be very risky to issue the licences if the technology is not that stable."

Another analyst, Fu Liang warned that China Telecom is currently distracted with the new network infrastructure sharing policy which was announced last month, while China Unicom is still integrating its business with China Netcom.

China Mobile, the network which will almost certainly be forced to use TD-SCDMA is rolling out the coverage of its so-called trial network to a further 28 cities - despite consistent media reports of poor coverage and battery life in the handsets.

China Mobile is however, reported to be working intensely on LTE  - the next evolution from 3G networks and may be trying to leapfrog over the 3G technology to a Chinese based TD-LTE network, which would be compatible with the 3G network where it had already been deployed.

Source: South China Morning Post