The Chinese government will continue its support of China's homegrown 3G standard, TD-SCDMA, in 2009 with a raft of policies, although problems in handset quality could continue to hamper consumer take-up, a source at China Mobile told Interfax on Nov. 24.

"Next year will be an important year for TD-SCDMA, with more relevant policies to be released to support the standard," the source, who wished to remain anonymous, said. The source did not detail the policies.

According to a report by Beijing Daily on Nov. 24, improving R & D and the commercialization of TD-SCDMA has been listed by the Ministry of Industry and Informatization (MIIT) as one of 10 measures to combat slowing economic growth.

However, the source said the quality of handsets remains a major problem for TD-SCDMA.

According to a recent survey conducted by China's National Bureau of Statistics of 3,000 TD-SCDMA handset users in the first eight cities to trial the technology, 86 percent of respondents said they will not use TD-SCDMA handsets, mainly due to concerns over signal coverage and quality problems with handsets.

Since TD-SCDMA trials started in April, 12 percent of TD-SCDMA handsets have been returned for repair, compared to a return rate of just 2 percent for GSM handsets. Around 52 percent of complaints about TD-SCDMA are related to handset quality.

However, some analysts have said that with more base stations to be built in the future, signal problems might be solved. In addition, the expansion of handset competition with the entry of companies such as Nokia will serve to boost the quality of handsets.

Source:INTERFAX-CHINA