China : Alcatel Shanghai Bell and Datang Mobile, China’s major TD-SCDMA solution provider, announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Cooperation (MOC) to facilitate the wide-spread commercial deployment of TD-SCDMA systems in China and overseas.

The memorandum calls for Alcatel Shanghai Bell and Datang Mobile to form a joint team responsible for developing a comprehensive strategy to create the resources and manufacturing infrastructure required to meet future demand for TD-SCDMA technology in China and the rest of the world, through developing standard manufacturing, quality controls and testing procedures. As part of that effort, the two companies will share documents on manufacturing, testing and quality control.

Based on the timetable developed by the team, Datang and Alcatel Shanghai Bell will work together to reduce time-to-market for TD-SCDMA by leveraging existing technology, streamlining the business review processes and identify responsibilities of each party.

Based on the principles set forth in the MOC, Alcatel Shanghai Bell and Datang Mobile will consider additional cooperative agreements on TD-SCDMA product manufacturing and marketing activities. In China, Datang Mobile will designate Alcatel Shanghai Bell as its privileged partner for TD-SCDMA market cooperation and the two parties plan to jointly bid on key projects.

“Datang Mobile is committed to TD-SCDMA technology and product innovation in an effort to accelerate the deployment of this technology. Datang Mobile and Alcatel Shanghai Bell will maintain its strategic partnership to further develop TD-SCDMA technology, commercialization and marketing activities,” said Xie Yongbin, President of Datang Mobile.

“TD-SCDMA is a very promising technology and we are eager to help ensure that the industry is ready to support commercial deployment in China and elsewhere,” said Olivia Qiu, President of Alcatel Shanghai Bell. “Our close cooperation with Datang Mobile in TD-SCDMA manufacturing and marketing activities will accelerate the pace of TD-SCDMA’s deployment in China and across the world. This cooperative arrangement will further strengthen our 3G position and reinforce our leadership in China’s mobile communications market. ”

Alcatel-Lucent flagship company in China, Alcatel Shanghai Bell and Datang Mobile, a member company of Datang Group, signed a strategic cooperation agreement in November of 2004 to jointly invest in the development of TD-SCDMA products in China. At the 2005 International TD-SCDMA Summit held in April 2005, Alcatel Shanghai Bell and Datang Mobile jointly demonstrated their end-to-end TD-SCDMA solutions. In August of 2005, the companies announced that they were ready to commence large-scale commercial deployment in China.

In March 2006, Alcatel Shanghai Bell established a joint TD-SCDMA interoperability laboratory with Datang Mobile. The joint lab provides a real network environment dedicated to interoperability testing between GSM and TD-SCDMA applications to ensure the seamless provision of wireless services to end users. The closer cooperation made possible by this new agreement demonstrates that the two parties are prepared to meet the anticipated demand for TD-SCDMA and capitalize on the market opportunities of TD-SCDMA in China and around the world.