China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will issue China's first 3G license for China Mobile's TD-SCDMA at 14:30, January 7, 2009, marking China's formal entry into the 3G age.
China's State Council announced on December 31, 2008 that it approved MIIT to start the issuing of 3G licenses and asked the MIIT to do related work in accordance with those procedures.
MIIT says it will follow the deployment requirements of the State Council and satisfactorily complete the issuing of TD-SCDMA, WCDMA and CDMA2000 licenses in accordance with legal procedures and the applications of relevant enterprises to stimulate domestic demand, promote economic growth and optimize the competing structure of China's telecommunications market.
Local media reports do not mention when China Unicom and China Telecom will gain their coveted 3G licenses for their WCDMA and CDMA2000 businesses, respectively.