PARIS-Alcatel Corp. said it will invest $323 million in Chinese company Datang Mobile as part of partnership between the two companies and to foster the introduction of TD-SCDMA technology in China. The announcement comes just days after reports that TD-SCDMA tests in China offered less-than-stellar results.
Alcatel’s investment in Datang includes a 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, the French supplier said.
The first TD-SCDMA products are expected to be delivered to the Chinese market by June 2005. According to the agreement, Datang Mobile will adopt Alcatel’s core system and applications for its TD-SCDMA solution.
“The new partnership agreement between Alcatel and Datang is a great news to the TD-SCDMA family,” said XJ Wang, senior analyst for The Yankee Group. “There could not be a better time for Alcatel to enter the TD-SCDMA development. Considering most of the TD-SCDMA deployments will be greenfield opportunities, winning TD-SCDMA contracts will certainly boost Alcatel’s market share in the infrastructure business segment.”
Siemens AG, also a Datang Mobile partner, has been the biggest foreign proponent of TD-SCDMA technology.<p
