Editing UMTS (section)

===== History =====
On January 20, 2006, [[Ministry of Information Industry]] of the People's Republic of China formally announced that TD-SCDMA is the country's standard of 3G mobile telecommunication. On February 15, 2006, a timeline for deployment of the network in China was announced, stating pre-commercial trials would take place starting after completion of a number of test networks in select cities. These trials ran from March to October, 2006, but the results were apparently unsatisfactory. In early 2007, the Chinese government instructed the dominant cellular carrier, China Mobile, to build commercial trial networks in eight cities, and the two fixed-line carriers, [[China Telecom]] and [[China Netcom]], to build one each in two other cities. Construction of these trial networks was scheduled to finish during the fourth quarter of 2007, but delays meant that construction was not complete until early 2008.

The standard has been adopted by 3GPP since Rel-4, known as "UTRA TDD 1.28&nbsp;Mcps Option".<ref name="whatistdscdma" />

On March 28, 2008, China Mobile Group announced TD-SCDMA "commercial trials" for 60,000 test users in eight cities from April 1, 2008. Networks using other 3G standards (WCDMA and CDMA2000 EV/DO) had still not been launched in China, as these were delayed until TD-SCDMA was ready for commercial launch.

In January 2009, the [[Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China|Ministry of Industry and Information Technology]] (MIIT) in China took the unusual step of assigning licences for 3 different third-generation mobile phone standards to three carriers in a long-awaited step that is expected to prompt $41 billion in spending on new equipment. The Chinese-developed standard, TD-SCDMA, was assigned to China Mobile, the world's biggest phone carrier by subscribers. That appeared to be an effort to make sure the new system has the financial and technical backing to succeed. Licences for two existing 3G standards, W-CDMA and [[Evolution-Data Optimized|CDMA2000 1xEV-DO]], were assigned to [[China Unicom]] and China Telecom, respectively. Third-generation, or 3G, technology supports Web surfing, wireless video and other services and the start of service is expected to spur new revenue growth.

The technical split by MIIT has hampered the performance of China Mobile in the 3G market, with users and China Mobile engineers alike pointing to the lack of suitable handsets to use on the network.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Lau |first1=Justine |title=China Mobile trails on 3G technology |url=https://www.ft.com/content/f25fb1a6-7461-11dd-bc91-0000779fd18c |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221210/https://www.ft.com/content/f25fb1a6-7461-11dd-bc91-0000779fd18c |archive-date=2022-12-10 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |work=Financial Times |date=August 28, 2008}}{{subscription required}}</ref> Deployment of base stations has also been slow, resulting in lack of improvement of service for users.<ref>{{cite web |title=China's 3G Network Deployment Update{{Snd}} IHS Technology |url=https://technology.ihs.com/393444/chinas-3g-network-deployment-update |website=IHS Market: Technology |access-date=9 August 2019 |archive-date=9 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190809132931/https://technology.ihs.com/393444/chinas-3g-network-deployment-update |url-status=dead }}</ref> The network connection itself has consistently been slower than that from the other two carriers, leading to a sharp decline in market share. By 2011 China Mobile has already moved its focus onto TD-LTE.<ref>{{cite web |title=China Mobile Not Serious About TD-SCDMA, Betting Big on TD-LTE |url=https://technode.com/2011/05/09/china-mobile-not-serious-td-scdma-bet-big-ontd-lte/ |website=TechNode |date=9 May 2011}}</ref><ref name="CM TD-SCDMA CN 2"/> Gradual closures of TD-SCDMA stations started in 2016.<ref>{{cite web |date=2016|title=Closing of China Mobile 3G Base Stations Signifies End of China's Self-owned Standard |url=http://en.people.cn/n3/2016/0316/c90000-9030605.html |website=People's Daily Online }}</ref><ref name="CM TD-SCDMA CN 1"/>