Alcatel SA's (NYSE: ALA; Paris: CGEP:PA) efforts to strike a Chinese partnership deal for the development of Time-Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA) technology has raised the prospect of a potential tie-up with local player
Datang Telecom Technology Co. Ltd.
The French incumbent vendor has repeated its intention to jointly develop 3G infrastructure equipment based on TD-SCDMA technology, a move flagged by
Unstrung earlier this year (see
Alcatel Mulls Chinese Move).
“We’re in very serious talks with local Chinese firms to do something together,” says Christian Reinaudo, president of Alcatel’s Asia-Pacific operations, according to a
Reuters report today.
A spokeswoman for Alcatel confirmed that the report is “totally true.” No further details were forthcoming.
Likely Chinese candidates include Datang,
Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., and
ZTE Corp. In light of Datang’s track record of TD-SCDMA partnership deals, analysts believe the local player to be a strong suit for Alcatel. Datang has struck similar deals with
Nortel Networks Ltd. (NYSE/Toronto: NT) and
Siemens AG (NYSE: SI; Frankfurt: SIE). (See
Siemens Prepares for China Deal and
Nortel, Datang Open 3G Lab.)
“I'd be surprised to see Huawei joining with Alcatel as they appear to be competing in emerging markets,” notes
Gartner Inc.’s Jason Chapman. “Maybe Datang are opening its doors to more vendors?”
"Datang would have to be the logical choice," adds Peter Jarich of
Current Analysis. "Datang and Siemens are the founders of the technology and it's much less likely that Alcatel would get together with Siemens."
TD-SCDMA 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).
The Chinese government has been eagerly touting the benefits of this new technology over established rival 3G standards such as wideband-CDMA and CDMA2000 (see
W-CDMA: China's No. 1 Son? and
Chinese 3G: Open to All?).
To date, all six carriers trialing third-generation networks in the region have tested the nascent TD-SCDMA flavor --
China Mobile Communications Corp.,
China Netcom Corp. Ltd.,
China Telecommunications Corp. (NYSE: CHA),
China Unicom Ltd.,
China Satellite Communications Corp. (China Satcom), and
China Railcom Co. Ltd. -- and the technology is expected to feature in the award of 3G licenses next year (see
Global Vendors to Rule China? and
Chinese 3G Faces Further Delay).
— Justin Springham, Senior Editor, Europe,
Unstrung
