Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co. Ltd. And Nortel Networks have officially launched a laboratory to examine the commercialization of TD-SCDMA (time division synchronous code division multiple access), following an agreement signed last month.

"It's a milestone for us to accelerate the development of the home-grown 3G (third generation) standard," said Zhou Huang, president of Datang Mobile's parent company ­ Datang Telecom Technology and Industrial Group.

The laboratory, which is the most advanced of its kind in China, will apply both companies' technologies to conduct a series of tests in the areas of interoperability, network performance and system functions based on TD-SCDMA.

"We are now advancing into a new stage of integrated testing," said Tang Ru'an, chief executive officer of Datang Mobile. According to the proposed timetable, tests focusing on the application of TD-SCDMA will be carried out from October to December.