Siemens, Huawei Co-develop 3G Gear in China
Siemens and Huawei Technologies announced a joint venture
to develop, manufacture and market 3G mobile phone products
that are based on a Chinese standard called Time-Division
- Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA).
Siemens will hold a 51 percent stake in the new company,
which is initially capitalized at US$100 million. Huawei
will hold the remaining shares. The joint venture will
begin commercial production in 2004.
China has become the major battleground for the GSM standard
popular worldwide except the US, and for CDMA, which is
popular in the US. Virtually all the patents for CDMA
(code division multiple access), are held by a US company,
Qualcomm. The Chinese government was reluctant to depend
on a single licenser for all CDMA equipment, and supported
the development of TD-SCDMA in China as an alternative.
Siemens was the only foreign company to support the Chinese
development of this new standard.
China is currently the largest single national market
for mobile phones, with 240 million subscribers. All of
them use GSM standard phones, except for 4 million who
use CDMA phones. However, the number of CDMA phone users
has been growing recently, and at a faster rate than the
overall market.
Huawei Technologies is a leading maker of Internet routers
and communications equipment.
Before you go, did you like this article?
If so, you can receive a free email newsletter version
each weekday. Sign up using the China Business Express
form on this page.
