The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology gave 3G licenses to China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom on January 7, marking China's formal advance to the 3G era.  As expected, for three technologies: TD-SCDMA for China Mobile, WCDMA for China Unicom and CDMA2000 for China Telecom.  Chinese carriers are expected to spend about 280 billion yuan on 3G networks and services in the next two years as planned, according to Minister Li Yizhong.

The homegrown TD-SCDMA with IPRs in Chinese hands has become an international standard.  China Mobile announced its all-new brand G3 and dedicated prefix 188 for 3G services on the same day.  The carrier is pushing phase II of network construction service will be available in 28 more cities by June. The long-term plan is to cover all cities by 2011.

(China IP News)