Datang Telecom announced Tuesday that it has completed upgrading China Mobile's TD-SCDMA networks in Shanghai and Guangzhou to utilize HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packages Access).
Datang Mobile executed the upgrades as part of China Mobile's TD-SCDMA network upgrade project. The company said testing of the upgraded networks went well, and that high quality voice communication can now be ensured in the two cities' metros and public areas.
China Mobile had planned to have all TD-SCDMA networks upgraded in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Qinhuangdao, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Xiamen by the end of May. However, only upgrade work by Putian on portions of the networks in Tianjin and Qinhuangdao was completed on schedule.
According to a report by Sina.com, Putian completed its upgrade work in Tianjin and Qinhuangdao by May 17. The upgraded networks are expected to support data transmission speeds of up to 2.8 Megabits per second.
China Mobile's TD-SCDMA network upgrade project is being carried out by several companies, with Datang Mobile responsible for Shanghai and Guangzhou; ZTE and Putian responsible for Tianjin and Qinhuangdao; ZTE and TD-Tech responsible for Shenyang; ZTE, TD-Tech and Ericsson responsible for Xiamen; and ZTE responsible for Beijing.
"By value, ZTE won 46.78 percentage of the overall upgrade project. Datang Mobile won 36.68 percent. Putian won about 2 percent," Zhang Yan, a Datang Mobile official, said.
Details regarding the progress of upgrade work in Beijing, Shenyang, Shenzhen and Xiamen have not been released. HSDPA is a 3.5G technology for both WCDMA and TD-SCDMA. When upgraded, TD-SCDMA networks are referred to as TD-HSDPA.
It is widely believed that the upgrade will help to boost confidence in TD-SCDMA among telecom equipment manufacturers and spur market growth. Meanwhile, China Mobile has started putting TD-SCDMA service advertisements on TV to attract more users.
