- At the TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) launch conference held in Beijing, the Chongqing municipal government recently announced to build China's first 3G industrial park in Chongqing, the Sohu IT News reported. The industrial park is expected to have a total investment of 15.63 billion RMB (US$2.29 billion; US$1= 6.83 RMB) by luring 18 investment projects from prestigious international companies, including IBM and Infineon, according to the same source. Situated in the Chongqing Chayuan New City, the new facility will offer comprehensive supply chain services, ultimately forming three industrial clusters, including 3G core chipsets, 3G hardware and terminals, and 3G application services.

- Huawei recently announced that it has completed the deployment of China's first commercial WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) network for China Unicom in Zhengzhou, Henan province of China, the Sina News reported. China Unicom previously said to complete WCDMA rollouts in 55 cities in the first half of 2009. At the beginning of February 2009, Huawei and China Unicom jointly made the first batch of WCDMA video calls in the cities of Guangzhou, Shanghai and Qingdao, and further to over 20 cities in early March 2009, the Xinhua News reported.

- Alcatel-Lucent announced on March 23 that it has signed a supply agreement with China Unicom through Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai, whereby Alcatel-Lucent will help the latter to deploy WCDMA networks in 14 Chinese provinces, Dow Jones reported on March 23. 14 provinces include Hebei, Fujian Guangxi, Tianjin, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi, Guizhou, Heilongjiang, Guangdong, Hunan, Shandong and Xinjiang.

Meanwhile, Alcatel-Lucent has begun initial network deployments in six cities, including Tianjin, Baoding, Wenzhou, Taizhou, Guiyang and Guilin, due to be completed in May 2009. Upon the completion of the deployment, China Unicom's subscribers in these provinces will be able to enjoy state-of-art 3G mobile services, including media streaming, ring back tones, video sharing and high-speed internet access.

- China Telecom has begun the third round tender for CDMA phones, luring around 200 terminals from 60 companies, the China Business News reported on March 24. Most phones are 2G CDMA phones, mainly CDMAx1 models. A spokesperson from Tianyi Telecom, a subsidiary of China Telecom, said that a total of 215 products have participated in the tender, of which 78% are mid-range and high-end products. The total value of the tender has yet to be disclosed but is expected to be higher than the previous two tenders, according to the same source