Telecom Sector Entering New Development Era

From 1998, when China put forward its 3G mobile communications technology standard with independent intellectual property, to 2008, when TD-SCDMA was successfully applied to serve over 100 thousand of subscribers synchronously during Beijing Olympics, TD-SCDMA (TD for short) finally entered the phase of public operation over ten years of development.

In the ten years, from the technology to the market, from the standard to the application innovation, TD-SCDMA developed, expanded, and formed a widely covering industrial chain with Chinese enterprises as the main body and international enterprises participating in actively, which drove the structural adjustment and capacity upgrade of China's telecommunications industry.

Constructing a integrated communications industry chain

China is the largest telecommunications consumption market in the world, however, it is not unsuitable that the telecommunications infrastructure in China is weak at all - Equipment manufacturers are generally weak in strength, lack of core technology, and with rather limited investment to R&D...

Experts indicated that, to go from laboratory to public operation, a telecommunications technological scheme needs to experience multiple stages on the industrial chain: From system, chip, terminal, test meter to practical operation, each stage is a complicated and huge project.

 "The R&D and industrialization of TD-SCDMA, neither technology and capital nor talents and market would have worked continually if they were burdened solely by Datang Telecom Technology Group and not supported widely by various fields of the society," said Lou Qinjian, Vice Ministry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the P.R.C. when he reviewed the difficulties in the initial phase of TD development. Experts also believed that it was necessary to set up an organization that multiple parties participate in, which must organize and coordinate an integrated industrial chain to lead the product development in the view of standardization and industrialization of technology.

To enhance the R&D and industrialization of TD and constitute an efficient mechanism capable of boosting and ensuring the TD development, jointly driven by National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the former Ministry of Information Industry (MII), and Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance, TD-SCDMA Forum, and TD-SCAMA Expert Group, which are praised as "Three Carriages" generally, were established one after another. Thus a technological innovation system came into being, which made enterprises as the main body and associated with manufacture, study, research and utilization. During the R&D and industrialization of ED-SCDMA, TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance played an important role of organizer and coordinator especially.

 "At the very beginning, enterprises were not very enthusiastic to join in Alliance. Some of them even thought that another money-collecting industrial association was formed again", said Yang Hua, General Secretary of TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance, "At that time, other 3G telecommunications standards worldwide like WCDMA and CDMA2000 had begun commercial operation, and gathered a large number of upstream and downstream enterprises, for instance, ZTE and Huawei both invested large amount of capital to relevant technological research."
With joint efforts of various parties, TD-SCDMA has had near 60 member enterprises now. With the entry of China Mobile, the largest telecommunications operators in China, a complete industrial chain covering system, terminal chip, test, antenna, and operation levels took shape basically.

The industrialization of independent standard develops quickly

After the foundation of TD-SCDMA industrial chain, to speed up the industrialization has become a common opinion of all parties. In order to "support independent innovation, enhance the core competitiveness of information industry, confirm the confidence of enterprises, and speed up the industrialization", NDRC, the former MII, and MOST jointly conducted the phase 1 and 2 special project of TD-SCDMA research and industrialization respectively in 2003 and 2006. The two special projects acted a crucial role in improving and enhancing TD-SCDMA industrial chain.
 "The first phase of the special project brought TD-SCDMA a capital of RMB708 million yuan, and part of which was paid for the technology transfer fee by Potevio and ZTE to Datang Mobile." Said Zhang Xinsheng, Vice Director of Department of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. So Datang's R&D on TD-SCDMA technology for many years was rewarded, and member enterprises' burden of project initiation capital was eased.

In November 2003, Datang Mobile transferred all its TD-SCDMA technologies and data, including source codes, principle diagrams, and test cases, to Potevio and ZTE without reservation. Siemens and Huawei also announced to cooperate on TD-SCDMA and formed a joint R&D center. Member enterprises of the Alliance began to take action, and the industrialization of TD-SCDMA began to speed up.

After striving to make technological breakthrough, Spreadtrum launched the world's first TD-SCDMA chip; ZTE expanded its TD-SCDMA R&D team from 30 to more than 800 persons, and began the scale production of TD-SCDMA terminal; Datang Mobile made multiple breakthroughs in TD-SCDMA subsequent technology research, and now has solved the problem of TD-SCDMA technological evolution prior to 4G, and finished the technological evolution schemes from 3G, 3.5G to 3.75G or 3.9G.

The huge market potential also attracted some multinational companies to join in. In November 2004, Datang and Shanghai Bell Alcatel conducted in-depth collaboration in TD industrialization; In March 2005, Huawei and Siemens each invested US$100 million and jointly found TD-Tech Ltd. tailored for TD-SCDMA.

Technology and product only laid a foundation for the development of TD-SCDMA industry; only the participation of operators can inject vitality to the industrial development indeed. In 2007, China Mobile invested over RMB20 billion yuan to the large scale TD network test in eight major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin; In April 2008, TD public trial operation started up; In August 2008, the second period of TD public trial operation network construction started up. As revealed by Wang Jianzhou, President of China Mobile, till June 2009, TD-SCDMA network would cover 38 cities in total, including 31 provincial capital cities and such other cities as Dalian, Qingdao, Ningbo, Xiamen, Shenzhen, Qinhuangdao, and Baoding.

At present, TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance has had near 60 member enterprises, and over 100 enterprises participated in it. On each industrial stage, there are several enterprises supporting it. Over the past decade, over RMB4 billion yuan has been invested in direct corporate R&D and industrialization environment construction, and the research capacity of independent mobile communications technology was improved obviously. Yang Hua said, not only TD, the whole information and communications industry of China is stepping into a new phase of independent standard development.