ZTE Corp, the mainland's second-largest provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, has been named as one of the first vendors to be awarded the country's TD-SCDMA network entry certificate, according to the company.
The TD-SCDMA equipment covered by the certificate, issued by the Ministry of Information Industry, falls into four categories: core network equipment, radio network controller equipment, base equipment and application platform equipment.
Mainland-listed Datang Telecom Technology was also awarded the same certificate, while TD Tech, a joint-venture company set up by Siemens and Huawei Technology in March 2005, was expected to get the certificate soon, analysts said.
'Our TD-SCDMA equipment was tested in trial TD-SCDMA stations in Xiamen, Shanghai and Qingdao, and achieved excellent results,' said Shenzhen-based ZTE, which has teamed up with Ericsson to deliver the technology since May 2005.
ZTE's announcement last week heightened anticipation over the issuance of third-generation licences on the mainland and the upcoming battle among equipment makers.
Steven Liu, an analyst at DBS Vickers Securities, said the central government would probably issue simultaneously three nationwide 3G licences, for TD-SCDMA, CDMA2000 and WCDMA standards, in the middle of this year. 'China Mobile will get the TD-SCDMA licence while China Telecom, China Unicom and China Netcom may share the rest after restructuring,' he said.