Motorola receives 3G License for China

Motorola Inc, the largest American mobile phone maker, has got a 3G network access license following Nokia, Samsung and LG from China Mobile<941> to supply phones compatible with China's 3G standard.

Sony-Ericsson is the only one in the top five joint venture mobile phone makers in China, without a 3G license for the country, according to sources.

Motorola has worked out the company's first GSM/TD (time division-synchronous code division multiple access) dual mode mobile phone which can rove between existing networks and the 3G network. And it will take part in the second batch of 3G phone bids of China Mobile and will make a presence on the domestic market if accepted, the official said.

China Mobile has bought the first batch of 60,000 TD-SCDMA phones and 15,000 data cards through public bidding, according to sources.

Six handset firms won bids, namely ZTE, Lenovo<992>, LG, Samsung, AMOI and Datang. The homemade phones hold 60% of the TD phone market. The top three in terms of sales are ZTE, Samsung and LG.

China Mobile may launch a second round of public bidding next month. By then the number of TD users will be over 100,000.