The commercial trials will help to improve TD-SCDMA technology, as well as provide better mobile services during the Beijing Olympics, according to Xinhua News agency.

The eight cities chosen for the trials are Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang, Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Xiamen and Qinhuangdao.

Five of the eight cities are hosting events for the Beijing Olympics in August. China has promised to provide 3G mobile phone services in time for the Games.

The service features high-speed data transmissions that can allow users to watch videos, play 3D games, and conduct video conferences.

China Mobile would provide 20,000 users with handsets worth 2,000 yuan (282 U.S. dollars) to 4,000 yuan each and data cards free of charge for the trial use, it said. A monthly subsidy of 800 yuan would also be offered to each user.

The first batch of 3G handsets were made by six producers, including China’s Lenovo, Hisense, ZTE and New Postcom, and South Korea’s Samsung and LG, it said.

A company spokesman said the trial service would have nothing to do with the issue of 3G licenses. He did not disclose how long the trial service would last or whether it would be extended to other cities.

The next move will be taken depending on the test results of the trial,” he said.

The company says its TD-SCDMA network could accommodate 8 million users.

China had 565 million mobile phone users by the end of last month, about 43 percent of the population.

The International Telecommunication Union recognized TD-SCDMA as one of the world’s three official 3G standards in 2000. The other two are Europe’s WCDMA and North America’s CDMA 2000.

The Chinese government last year approved the use of the European and American standards in China.

Some western governments and companies have accused China of delaying the issue of 3G licenses to allow its indigenous standard to mature enough to compete with foreign rivals.

But Xi Guohua, Vice-Minister of Chinase Information Industry Ministry said last year that the government would give equal status to WCDMA and CDMA 2000 despite its support for the domestic standard.

Analysts also expect the better-established W-CDMA and CDMA2000 standards for 3G to be launched in China alongside TD-SCDMA, although the timing is not yet known.

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Shanghai is a logical starting point to begin China’s wireless ascension. The city is the backbone of the Chinese Net with international output capacity reaching 50 G, the country’s largest point of outflow for Chinese information. This year will also mark the dredging of the new trans-Pacific fiber optic cable (TPE) with a capacity of 640 G. By the end of the year, 85% of the city’s internet users will enjoy a broadband access of up to 2 M and 80 percent of broadband subscribers will enjoy an opened capacity of 4 M. The number of broadband subscribers will reach 3 million in 2008.

At present, people can access a wireless network in Jiading District in the north of Shanghai. Wireless will probably be available in most areas in the city’s central Huangpu District, where the municipal government buildings are located, by the end of the year, said Hua Ruiqiang, Shanghai Telecom’s senior manager.

Once completed, it will be the first citywide wireless broadband network on the Chinese mainland: Beijing wireless network will be available only around the Olympic stadiums, hotels and travel sites.

Currently wireless access is available at the city’s two commercial airports, some hotels and restaurants and Starbucks outlets in Shanghai.

“We have made several proposals for the business model and the technology of the network and it will use mainstream and advanced technology,” Hua said.

Wi-Fi and WiMax — the wider coverage and higher speed version of Wi-Fi — will be adopted for Shanghai, according to IT firms like Cisco and Nortel, which say they have been selected to provide equipment for the network.

The network will be funded by the government, Shanghai Telecom and Shanghai Mobile, though no decision has been made yet on whether to charge users, according to the IT commission.

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Simple SMS-based services might lose their appeal in China soon, since cell phones equipped with applications such as web browser, global positioning system and multimedia function are getting popular among Chinese consumers

A survey released recently by the CCID Consulting showed that 31,668 people had been interviewed and 37 percent of them would like to choose cell phones with which they can surf online when they intended to buy a new one, while 33 percent hoped they could get one with the GPS function, a helpful tool to China’s increasing car owners.

More than 20 percent, mainly the young generation who put pieces of music in their cell phones and use it as a music player, said they would like one having a large storage disk.

A similar proportion said they would use their new mobile phone to chat with online friends.

CCID Vice President Lu Guoying estimated that Chinese mobile phone market will see booming purchase from 2008 to 2010, when many Chinese consumers change their cell phones for new ones. “It is an opportunity for mobile phone companies to raise their market share,” said Lu.

China is expected to manufacture 500 million sets of mobile phones in 2007, with 150 million to be sold in domestic market.

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Revenue of Shanghai’s information technology industry is set to double last year’s figure to surpass 1 trillion yuan (US$128 billion) in 2010 when the World Expo is held here.

The city will invest heavily in several IT projects for the expo, such as a citywide wireless broadband network, a digital transport management network, electronic payment and social security systems, paper-less customs application system and mobile TV, according to Shanghai Municipal Informatization Commission.

In 2006, revenue of Shanghai’s IT industry reached 590.45 billion yuan, ranking it as the city’s No. 1 pillar industry for five consecutive years, and accounted for 13 percent of the city’s total GDP. Exports of the IT industry were US$37 billion, one-third of the city’s export value, according to Zhou Weidong, the commission’s secretary general.

The IT industry in the city also got a boost from the software and integrated circuit industries. The revenue of the local software industry, with 26 star firms authorized by the national regulator, hit 61.67 billion yuan, one-sixth of the country’s level. The local IC revenue was 38 billion yuan, ranking it No. 1 in China.

“We will continue to invest in IT infrastructure to let World Expo visitors enjoy the latest high-tech services in Shanghai,” said Zhou, who is also in charge of IT development at the Bureau of Shanghai World Exposition Executive Commission.

Shanghai plans to set up a citywide wireless broadband network in time for the expo in 2010. Once completed, it will be the first citywide wireless broadband network on the Chinese mainland.

Shanghai Telecom Co Ltd and China Mobile’s Shanghai branch have signed agreements with the IT commission to invest a total of 40 billion yuan to improve local IT infrastructure, including the wireless network.

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