For the development of the Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) or "TD", China Mobile Communications Corporation (China Mobile) will, for the first time, offer financial aid to relevant research and development activities carried out by mobile phone manufacturers.

China Mobile has already decided to invest 600 million yuan to help mobile phone manufacturers such as Nokia accelerate the research and development of TD mobile phones.

This will be the latest measure adopted by China Mobile in support of TD. Before this, China Mobile had already expressed that it will establish a special fund in a bid to expand channels and help distributors promote TD mobile phones. So far, however, TD mobile phones still face problems. These include having only a small number of terminals and a relatively small variety of models. Some users also complained about the quality of TD mobile phones. As a result, large international manufacturers who promised to support TD mobile phones have postponed launching related products.

Financial aid totaling 600 million yuan provided by China Mobile is expected to improve the current situation. Wang Jianyu, president of China Mobile, recently launched talks with international mainstream manufacturers such as Nokia, Samsung, LG Electronics and Sony Ericsson, suggesting that they make joint contributions to the research and development of TD mobile phones.

China Mobile will share the intellectual property rights of the TD mobile phones with manufacturers that receive its financial aid. Meanwhile, China Mobile emphasized that this does not mean that China Mobile will be making direct investments in mobile phones or chips. Instead, the financial contributions merely aim to speed up the development progress of TD mobiles phones.

By People's Daily Online