China Mobile recently reveals the results of its purchase tender for six million TD-SCDMA (Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) mobile phones capable of receiving CMMB (China Multiple Mobile Broadcasting) mobile TV signals, the Sohu IT News reported on November 10. According to the results, China Mobile already selected 12 CMMB-enabled TD-SCDMA phone products, with 500,000 units each, manufactured by nine Chinese manufacturers. Of the 12 products selected, seven were entry-level phone models, two of which were provided by ZTE and five of which were each provided by Coolpad, TCL, Hengxin, Lenovo, and Hisense, with an average price tag of 450 RMB (US$68.2; US$1= 6.6 RMB) and the lowest price tag of 348 RMB (US$52.7); five were mid-range phone models, each of which were provided by ZTE, New Postcom, Tianyu, Kong Profit, and TCL, with an average price tag of 650 RMB (US$98.5) and the lowest price tag of 450 RMB (US$68.1), according to the same source. Huawei and international mobile phone brands, however, failed to win a tender. None of these 12 phone models are TD-SCDMA Smartphones. Meanwhile, Guangdong Mobile, a subsidiary of China Mobile in Guangdong, recently announced that the company teamed up with CBC (China Broadcasting Corporation) to jointly launch a TD mobile TV service tailor-made for the imminent Guangzhou 2010 Asian Games held in November 12-27, supporting 25 sets of TV programs and 30 sets of radio programs, with a monthly subscription fee of 6 RBM (US$0.9).

Recently, China Mobile is projected to earmark US$225 million to establish TD-LTE (TD-Long Term Evolution) demonstration networks in six cities in China, the Xinhua News reported on November 9. Six cities include Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing, Xiamen, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen. Several telecom equipment suppliers were invited to participate in network trials, including Huawei, ZTE, Datang Mobile, Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, and Motorola. To date, China Mobile has set up a total of 3,060 TD-LTE base stations. In addition, China's MIIT (Ministry of Industry and Information Technology) has allocated the frequency band ranging between 2570Hz and 2620 MHz for demonstration networks. Furthermore, China Mobile is expected to launch a new mobile network based on new LTE technology sometime in 2011 as the earliest, according to the same source