Toronto-Dominion Bank ( TD - news - people ) that same year.
Observers believe the Chinese are hard at work developing a homegrown advanced standard, known as TD-SCDMA (time division synchronous cdma), and that 3G licenses will appear once TD-SCDMA is ready.
The deal left former parent Toronto-Dominion Bank (nyse: TD - news - people ) with a 33% stake (it has since increased that to a predetermined maximum of 39.9%).
The carrier is therefore investing in building out a next-generation 4G TD-LTE network that would help it move on from its home-grown TD-SCDMA network and increase its chances at landing lucrative smartphone contracts.
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Wang added that ahead of the full launch of TD-LTE, his company will be initiating user trials for TD-LTE data devices and phones throughout 2013 -- the first half of the year for the former, and the second half for the latter.
Interestingly, our brethren over at Engadget Chinese also spotted a TD-LTE-ready Samsung Galaxy S III at China Mobile's MWC booth (note the "China Mobile 4G" logo on the back of the phone, pictured above), but it wasn't mentioned at the Global TD-LTE Initiative summit at MWC.
As for TD-LTE, China Mobile expects its 4G technology to bloom in China some time between 2014 and 2015, as it continues to help the development of devices that natively support five modes (GSM, TD-SCDMA, UMTS, FD-LTE and TD-LTE) along with 10 to 12 bands.
This and other dual-core and quad-core smartphone products supporting TD-SCDMA, WCDMA and LTE will expand our addressable market, improve our product mix and position us for strong growth this year.
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Available now for large-scale commercial deployment in China Mobile's first trial TD-LTE network, which spans 13 cities in China, lightRadio Metro Radio will bring high-performance 4G services to residents in densely populated areas of Shanghai, Nanjing and Qingdao, three of the fastest growing cities in China and indeed the world.
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At the moment it has one TD - member of the Irish parliament - Caomhghin O'Caolain who represents the constituency of Cavan-Monaghan.
Qualcomm calms investors by saying that TD-SCDMA phones will still be subject to its patent-royalties program.
Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile signed a co-creation agreement in January 2012 to conduct joint development and test activities on a series of lightRadio TD-LTE projects to speed the deployment of LTE in China.
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That said, Wang also announced that China Mobile aims to sell twice as many TD-SCDMA devices this year, with smartphones expected to take up over 80 percent of that segment -- hardly a challenge considering they already reached 94.4 percent in the last quarter.
This network standard, called TD-SCDMA is incompatible with the 3G networks of most other carriers.
TD-SCDMA, an immature standard for which there is only a limited selection of handsets and equipment.
TD-LTE subscriber growth is slow with only a handful of smaller mobile operators currently servicing active subscribers.
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China Mobile, like all Chinese carriers, uses a unique technology standard (TD-SCDMA) for its 3G cellular network.
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The new platform, called TD-LTE, will be able to deliver the full functionality of the Apple iPhone.
Apple may simply choose to wait and introduce a handset that uses the next generation TD-LTE standard, Wu writes.
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In 2012, over 60 million TD-SCDMA devices were sold, with December alone pumping out over seven million units.
TD-SCDMA technology, says he believes that China will try to push the technology both at home and in neighbouring countries.
The focus has been on TD-LTE terminals and converged services solutions from the chip to the product through to the solution.
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However, these local standards such as TD-SCDMA and CMMB have yet to become globally relevant and there is little export market.
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The company further strengthened its role as an industry and technology leader in the TDD area with global promotion of TD-LTE in 2011.
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TD-SCDMA would reduce its dependence on foreign vendors and technology, and level the playing field for domestic suppliers of network infrastructure and handsets.
Additionally, TD-LTE is not supported by most of the mobile devices available in the market currently, which makes the bet on Clearwire even more risky.
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They asserts that the wireless communications segment is weaker than projected, due to disappointing TD-SCDMA handset releases in China, while PC builds are tracking slightly behind plan.
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The three flavors are known as 802w, 802t and 802d, each heading to China Unicom (WCDMA), China Mobile (TD-SCDMA) and China Telecom (CDMA), respectively.
TD-SCDMA will take off only if the government issues additional licences to let other firms enter the market, one of which then opts to adopt the unproven technology.
China Mobile, for example, is the largest carrier in the world with over 700 million subscribers and plans to build out a TD-LTE network on 2.5 GHz spectrum.
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