- At the GSMA (Global System Mobile Association) Mobile Asia Congress held in Macau between November 18-20, Nokia not only reaffirmed its support to TD-SCDMA standard but also announced that the company is currently developing a Symbian platform-based TD-SCDMA mobile phone, which is slated for commercialization in China before year-end 2009, according to a press release by Nokia.

In related news, China Mobile and Nokia are expected to sign a purchase agreement soon. Aside from Nokia, China Mobile is also in mobile phone purchase talks with Motorola and Sony-Ericsson. Currently, Korean LG and Samsung are the only two foreign companies to supply TD-SCDMA phones in China, according to a report by Dow Jones.

- Bill Huang, general manager of the Research Institution of China Mobile reaffirmed China Mobile's commitment to the 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) standard, the China Business News reported on November 20. In the future, Huang further stated that more than 60% of the company's investment will be invested in the migration to LTE. During the second phase equipment bid period, the company had demanded its equipment suppliers to deliver products based on TD-LTE, a TDD (Time Division Duplex) version of LTE.

As per the rollout timetable, the proof of concept trial based on TD-LTE will kick off by year-end 2008, and laboratory and field trials are set to begin in 2009. China Mobile hopes to enter the pre-commercial stage by year-end 2009 before a large-scale deployment of trial networks leveraging the said technology in 2010.