The Associated Press is reporting that China Mobile, the largest mobile carrier in China, said today that it was launching its first 3G trial using China's own state sponsored TD-SCDMA technology. TD-SCDMA has been somewhat controversial over the years since it was developed by China, in part, in an effort to avoid paying royalties to companies such as U.S. firm Qualcomm. While the Chinese government backed off of its initial plan of allowing Chinese carriers to only use its "home grown" technology, it has since said that carriers are free to choose from TD-SCDMA, CDMA2000 (ie. EV-DO), and UMTS, though many feel that the carriers are being pressured to use TD-SCDMA none the less.
The new trial will run in a total of 8 Chinese cities, and will involve 20,000 3G handsets as well as 5,000 3G data cards. The company did not say how long the trial would run, but the Chinese government has stated in the past that it will have a working 3G network in time for the Summer Olympics in Beijing this August.
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