Chinese news agency Xinhua reports today that China Mobile has joined the TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance (TDIA), becoming the first operator to secure membership. Established in 2002, TDIA comprises operators, manufacturers such as Bird, Huawei and ZTE, research and development entities, and distributors. Last month it was reported that China Mobile had been ordered by the country’s Ministry of Information and Industry (MII) to sign-up more than 100 million subscribers to its TD-SCDMA service in the next three years. China Mobile has been testing TD-SCDMA technology – a homegrown mobile standard that may be used as a commercial 3G technology once national licenses are allocated – during trials in eight cities and will deploy TD-SCDMA networks during the Beijing Olympic Games this August. TD-SCDMA is a rival 3G technology to globally deployed commercial standards W-CDMA and CDMA2000 1xEV-DO.

Meanwhile, Digitimes today notes that China Mobile intends to subsidise TD-SCDMA handsets in an attempt to improve sales of the devices both before and during the Olympics. Digitimes cites sources as stating that the operator will subsidise purchase of the handsets by 1,000-1,500 yuan (US$146-219) each, approximately 60 percent of the total price. The sources also claim that the world’s largest operator (by subscribers) will “absorb” the cost of certain TD-SCDMA services during the Olympics. The report notes that the operator placed an initial order of 60,000 handsets, and has recently finished a second procurement of 200,000 units. A third order of 40,000 handsets, incorporating China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting technology for mobile TV services, is reported to be planned.