China Mobile (CHL) has signed a wireless cooperation memo with the Xiamen Municipal Government to build a wireless city.
Unlike other Chinese cities which adopt Wi-Fi and WiMAX technology in their wireless construction, Xiamen will become the first wireless city in China that based on the TD-SCDMA/HSDPA network. This is also the first time for China Mobile to enter China's wireless city construction sector, making it face close combat with its rivals, China Telecom and CETC-Chinacomm.
According to Xiamen's government, the TD-SCDMA/HSDPA network has covered over 800 square kilometers of the city and the wireless services will be officially opened from September 8, 2008. By then, local residents will be able to browse government websites free of charge with their TD-SCDMA mobile phones or notebooks with TD-SCDMA network interface cards within the coverage of the wireless network. Special regions, including libraries, airports and convention and exhibition centers, where people can gain free Internet access, will be opened to the public at the same time.
As one of the first ten cities that constructed a TD-SCDMA trial network in China, Xiamen has developed its wireless network into a 3.5 gigabytes TD-HSDP network over more than two years construction and optimization. At present, users in the city are able to surf the Internet by wireless access at the speed up to 2.2 megabytes per second. In addition, its wireless network has covered an area of over 800 square kilometers, including main roads of the city, rural areas, and major public buildings, which lays a solid foundation for the construction of its wireless city project.