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Shanghai. July 3. INTERFAX-CHINA - CMMB (China Mobile Multimedia Broadcasting) receiver chip maker Innofidei Inc. is applying to join the TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance (TDIA), an Innofidei official said July 2.

"We are preparing the application paperwork. We are responding to the government's call for cooperation between CMMB and TD-SCDMA by joining the TDIA. We will work with mobile phone manufacturers to integrate CMMB receiver chips into TD-SCDMA mobile phones," Che Lingfang, Innofidei's public relations manager, told Interfax.

CMMB is a digital mobile TV broadcasting standard advocated by China's State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT). SARFT is deploying CMMB networks in more than 30 cities in China, with the aim of broadcasting Beijing Olympic Games coverage to mobile devices. TD-SCDMA is China's homegrown 3G standard and has been put into commercial trials by China Mobile Communications Corp.

That’s the view of one analyst who participated in trials in Baoding, China, as long ago as December 2006.

A very modest supply of subsidized handsets and data cards by domestic and foreign vendors should hit the market this summer for early adopters, according to ABI Research.

China Mobile — the winner of China’s TD-SCDMA 3G licenses, announced last week — will offer promotional service rates to drive interest by young subscribers, ABI said.

Despite a relative lack of handsets that could have created an Olympic showcase for the homegrown Chinese air interface later this summer, there’s little doubt the Chinese will make controlled demonstrations of its trial networks available to foreign visitors, one analyst said.

June 30 news, China Mobile opened six new value-added services for commercial users that participate in TD-SCDMA operational testing, including two Olympic highlight service: the Olympic video-on-demand business, the Olympic Alerts , And four other service: 2G mobile phone transfer business, search, wireless music club, flying letters and phone stock service.

Earlier, China Mobile have opened total of 20 kinds of businesses to TD-SCDMA users, including video telephony and its supplementary business, MMS, Monternet MMS, mobile newspapers, WAP portal, Internet data (data card), voice and the voice added business , Messaging, ring back tones, freedom of ICT, calls to remind, 12580 integrated information services, 12586 mobile Sharon, 12590 voice magazines.

China's scramble to meet its deadline to roll out TD-SCDMA handsets by the Olympic Games this year will be "challenging", according to industry watchers.

The primary reason, say analysts, is that the homegrown 3G technology is still immature, as a result of China being late to the game.

Mark Natkin, managing director at Beijing-based Marbridge Consulting, said in an interview with ZDNet Asia: "Will [TD-SCDMA] be ready by August? Like any smart better, I'm reluctant to really throw out a hard bet on that one. It will be challenging to work out all the technical issues."