Alcatel Close to China 3G Deal
French telecoms equipment maker Alcatel is nearing a deal with a Chinese peer on cooperating to build 3G mobile phone networks using the Chinese TD-SCDMA standard, a senior executive said. Alcatel’s position in China has also been bolstered by gains in market share, Christian Reinaudo, the company’s head of Asia Pacific operations, said on Monday. “We’re in very serious talks with local Chinese firms to do something together,” Reinaudo said at the Reuters Asia Technology Summit.
He said he was convinced the Chinese government would mandate that one of the country’s wireless operators use TD-SCDMA, a home-grown version of 3G technology, which promises to bring video calling and high-speed Web connections to mobile phones. “I believe it will be (set as a standard in China),” he said. TD-SCDMA will probably be used in parallel with two other high-speed cellular network technologies: WCDMA, which is already in use in Europe and Japan, and CDMA2000 1x, used in North America. Continue >>