Delegates at the second roundtable hosted by China's 3G Leading Group and industry association, The UMTS Forum yesterday heard more about plans by China's national administration, operators and equipment manufacturers to introduce 3G/UMTS.

Under the direction of China's Ministry of Information Industries (MII), trials of 3G/UMTS radio access networks and terminals are now complete. Evaluation of W-CDMA technology has apparently been quite satisfactory on the network side, and more dual mode handsets are expected for further testing. With the final results of these trials expected soon, it is being anticipated that China's administration may signal its intention to award 3G licenses in due course.

Officials from MII also confirmed that China's schedule for the industrialization of TD-SCDMA is on track, with a dozen vendors currently developing the technology that is standardized alongside W-CDMA in the Third Generation Partnership project.