Imagethief

I think that China Tech News is misrepresenting this story a little. This is not a full commercial deployment or even 'demonstration networks'; it's just the next phase of China's ongoing TD-SCDMA trials, both de jure and de facto.

Even if 3G licenses do get issued in October (not a certainty by any means - look at every previous "final phase" of TD-SCDMA trials), that doesn't mean that those few cities will be the only ones to get TD-SCDMA coverage - it just means that China Mobile will get an 8-city headstart when it's starting its 3G network buildout.

As for myself, I'm not planning to buy into the MII's protectionist nonsense, but I think it might be worth picking up an EDGE-capable phone. Mobile and Unicom have both started upgrading their networks in Guangdong, and it's a fair bet it will be extended to other major cities long before TD-SCDMA becomes a worthwhile investment. And mobile data is cheap here, so I might as well make the most of it.