SK Telecom Co, South Korea's top mobile phone operator, has agreed with China to jointly develop a third-generation mobile standard in the world's largest mobile market by subscribers, SK said on Tuesday.
SK said in a statement it has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese government to cooperate on the development and commercialisation of TD-SCDMA, China's home-grown 3G standard. China is looking to nurture the technology as its major 3G mobile standard, against two more widely used global standards CDMA2000 and WCDMA.
"SK Telecom is the first foreign telecom service provider to establish a co-operative relationship with China on TD-SCDMA technologies," SK Telecom Chief Executive Kim Shin-bae said in a statement.
Telecom firms hope China will give the green light for third-generation mobile networks, unleashing more than $10 billion in spending on equipment and jumpstarting growth in a rapidly maturing mobile market, but analysts believe 3G licences will not come until early 2007. Under the alliance, SK and China will conduct joint research and tests on the technology as well as 3G multimedia services, the company said.
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