China Mobile has 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, reports the South China Morning Post. 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. According to the report, parent company China Mobile Communications Corp. has been asked to submit a business plan and budget for the launch of the next phase of the 3G TD-SCDMA service in August. China Mobile is expected to launch the next 30 billion yuan (US$4.36 billion) round of a tender to build the network as early as October, sources told the publication. The operator has already this week reportedly been urged by the MII to accelerate its work on deployment of TD-SCDMA to ensure the 3G service is ready for the Olympics.

Reuters notes that China Mobile has invested over 14.6 billion yuan in TD-SCDMA infrastructure to date, but only about 3,000 subscribers have signed on as paying customers so far, in addition to 20,000 users who were invited for a free trial. Analysts expect China Mobile may have to subsidise TD-SCDMA handsets or charge lower rates to achieve the 100 million target. Reuters suggests that these latest developments – coupled with China’s planned overhaul of its telecoms industry – means China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile operator by subscribers, is likely to be given the responsibility of developing TD-SCDMA technology prior to the award of the country’s commercial 3G licenses. Meanwhile Chinese vendor Datang Mobile said yesterday it is selling its 32.11 percent stake in T3G, one of the country’s major TD-SCDMA chip suppliers. Datang’s exit from T3G follows the collapse of Commit, another large TD-SCDMA chipmaker, which was forced to close its doors in April when it failed to secure fresh funding.