China to allocate 800-MHz band to TD-SCDMA — MobileMonday Global: Industry News

^{Commercial 3G trials coming in March} China to allocate 800-MHz band to TD-SCDMA

6 Dec 2004 at 07:38 GMT Timo Poropudas

China’s homegrown TD-SCDMA 3G standard will be allocated frequency at 800 MHz instead of 2 GHz in a move designed to give it a better chance to perform well, reports Asia Intelligence Wire. The news signals a change of plan as previous reports said the TD-SCDMA standard would be allocated spectrum in the 2010- to 2050-MHz and 2300- to 2400-MHz frequency ranges. The rest of the world is has dedicated the 2000+ MHz band for 3G services but the technology is not dependent on the radio frequency. Wireless signals at 800-MHz frequency are good for long-distance transmission, reduce a cell phone’s power consumption and allow wide coverage from a single radio tower, which means fewer base stations and lower capital investment. The available bandwidth determines how much traffic the network can carry. Media reports say that China Mobile is expected to adopt WCDMA, China Unicom cdma2000 and China Telecom and China Netcom will adopt TD-SCDMA. The frequency allocation plan will begin commercial trials in March 2005, with a view to going into full commercial service in June, say newspaper reports.