Alcatel and Datang Mobile announced that they have entered into a partnership agreement to foster the introduction of TD-SCDMA in China. The agreement was signed through Alcatel Shanghai Bell, Alcatel's flagship Chinese company, this week in Beijing, China, in the presence of Mr. Xi Guohua, Vice Minister of Information Industry in China.

This co-operative effort is the first of its kind in the TD-SCDMA sector among the TD-SCDMA Alliance members.

According to the agreement, Alcatel will invest EURO 25 million in Datang Mobile, including share holding, product planning, system integration and manufacturing. Alcatel will support the research and development of TD-SCDMA and become the privileged partner of Datang Mobile for industrialization of TD-SCDMA products in China.

Leveraging Alcatel's expertise and advanced technology for large-scale manufacturing, Alcatel and Datang Mobile will together form a dedicated team to focus on the industrialization of TD-SCDMA products from Alcatel's manufacturing base in Shanghai. Thanks to this joint effort, the first TD-SCDMA products are expected to be delivered to the Chinese market by June 2005.

The partnership will also put both companies in a unique position to lead the TD-SCDMA market and achieve growth on this market as soon as the commercial deployment of 3G starts in China. According to the agreement, Datang Mobile will adopt Alcatel's core system and applications for TD-SCDMA solution.