Sets up $111M joint venture with China Putian to develop 3G network equipment, following in Nortel's footsteps UPDATED 1:45 PM

October 13, 2005

1 Min Read
Nokia Invests in China 3G

As expected, Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) has set up a joint venture with a domestic vendor in China to develop technology based on China's home-grown 3G standard, Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA).

Nokia's partner is state-owned mobile and fixed network vendor China Putian, with which it already develops GSM technology. The two companies will jointly invest 900 million renminbi ($111 million), with Nokia owning 49 percent of the new venture and China Putian the remaining stake.

The venture will "focus on R&D, manufacturing and sales of 3G network solutions for TD-SCDMA and WCDMA technologies," Nokia stated. Unstrung first reported Nokia's intentions last month after analysts at Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. anticipated an announcement. (See Wireless Nuggets.)

Developed by the Chinese Academy of Telecommunications Technology, TD-SCDMA [ed. note: though it has the sound of a skin disease] has been approved by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and combines older Time-Division Multiple Access (TDMA) with Time-Division Duplexing (TDD) techniques of broadcasting over a single chunk of spectrum, rather than the normal two bands. (See TD-SCDMA Forum Joins 3GPP.)

Read the whole story at Unstrung.

— Ray Le Maistre, International News Editor, Light Reading

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