Chinese telecom equipment maker Potevio will team up with an Italian company to build a trial 3G (third generation) mobile phone network in Italy, based on TD-SCDMA, a Chinese home-grown standard.
This suggested that TD-SCDMA is gaining favor from overseas companies which used to be cautious about the Chinese technology as it has yet be deployed in any commercial networks unlike its rival foreign standards WCDMA and CDMA2000.
Under a deal signed on Friday, Potevio will provide TD-SCDMA equipment to Italy's telecom firm Mywave to build a trial network dedicated to serving corporate users.
The deal marks the sixth trial network built outside of the Chinese mainland. According to Yang Hua, secretary-general of TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance, building TD-SCDMA networks has started in Hong Kong, South Korea, Canada, Romania and Ghana in Africa.
China Mobile has built TD-SCDMA trial networks in 10 domestic cities and began the first public trial on April 1. Potevio has been the major supplier of equipment to China Mobile's TD-SCDMA trial networks in Tianjin and Qinhuangdao.
Potevio President Xing Wei revealed that Potevio and Mywave will "jointly tap into the European market" once the TD-SCDMA trial network is completed.
Unlike its domestic rivals Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp, which have established sprawling operations across the globe, Potevio has been mainly exporting equipment to the Caribbean.
The tie-up with Mywave is believed to have gained backing from the government. Potevio is a State-owned conglomerate overseen by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.
TD-SCDMA, which has been in testing for years, is believed to be less mature than its rivals WCDMA and CDMA2000.
China Mobile wanted to use WCDMA but has been under pressure to adopt the home-grown standard.
There are rumors that China Mobile recently lobbied the regulators to adopt both WCDMA and TD-SCDMA in its future 3G networks but the proposal was rejected.
Regulators believe the adoption of TD-SCDMA by China Mobile, the world's largest mobile phone operator by subscribers, could give an edge to TD-SCDMA in competing with the two other foreign standards.
"As long as China Mobile builds a successful TD-SCDMA network, the home-grown standard will gain more favor from other operators," said Tao Xiongqiang, vice-president of Potevio.
As of May, China had 592 million mobile phone subscribers, with China Mobile dominating the market with more than 407 million.
