The U.S. Commerce Department says it provided support to CDMA vendors wanting to sell their products in China, but did not discriminate against Time Division Multiple Access technology when it encouraged China to expand Code Division Multiple Access networks during visits there in March.
“We’ve always pushed for multiple standards to allow network operators to decide which technology they want to use,” said one Commerce official. “On the CDMA side, we provided specific advocacy support for CDMA projects in cases where U.S. vendors said they have customers willing to buy equipment if they could only get approval from the Ministry of Information Industry. We have not heard from any TDMA companies that can make that claim. We haven’t received any specific advocacy requests from TDMA companies. That’s the critical difference.”
The Universal Wireless Communications Consortium-a TDMA interest group that includes the United States’ largest mobile phone operator AT&T Wireless Services Inc.-is concerned about the fanfare associated with Secretary William Daley’s trip to China and the public assurance from the Chinese government that it would allow CDMA technology to expand.
China’s MII has allowed operators to expand experimental CDMA networks and reportedly has given China Unicom, the country’s second mobile phone operator, the green light to deploy the technology in an effort to more aggressively compete with China Telecom-the world’s largest Global System for Mobile communications operator. Chinese officials agreed to open the market to CDMA technology during Daley’s trip there in March.
“Due to the official statements and press reports resulting from that trip, a trip where only CDMA was noted as a 3G technology enjoying U.S. government support, we have encountered numerous global communications leaders who are now presuming that
CDMA technology is the U.S government’s 3G technology of choice,” wrote Greg Williams, UWCC chairman and vice president of wireless systems with SBC Technology Resources Inc.
Williams noted that Commerce Department officials have assured the UWCC it is not advocating one technology over another, but the administration’s absence of any public focus on TDMA in regard to its China trade agenda is “creating an unintended but potentially serious problem for UWCC members that employ over 70,000 employees and have over $30 billion invested in TDMA.”
Williams urged the Commerce Department to make a concerted effort to promote every U.S.-developed 3G standard, including TDMA.
UWCC plans to act more aggressively in China to access the world’s largest telecommunications opportunity. It plans to open an Asian office with the goal of targeting government authorities and standards groups. Williams could not comment by RCR press time.
Commerce Department officials also say that China’s preliminary openness to CDMA technology remains a concern.
“They still haven’t made any big commitments on CDMA,” said one Commerce official. “Unless they start granting new CDMA licenses, it’s still an issue.”
