We've been hearing that China Mobile would have its act together and get TD-SCDMA ready well in advance of the 2008 Beijing Olympics since last November, and with merely months to spare, it seems things just may work out. Reportedly, the carrier is all set to begin commercial trials of the home cooked 3G standard on April 1st, where it will be tested in Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Qinhuangdao and of course, Beijing. Initially, China Mobile Group will provide 20,000 lucky souls with free TD-SCDMA phones and subsidies of 800 yuan per month, while folks outside of that group can also walk into retail outlets and pick up discounted handsets on a whim. Maybe it's just us, but we'd probably hold off until those guinea pigs gave everyone else a heads-up of the network quality before we went dropping our own change on it.

[Via mocoNews]

We knew NXP and T3G were working on an automatic handover between TD-SCDMA and GSM, and now both firms are buddying up with Samsung to gloat about the unveiling of the "world's first" TD-SCDMA HSDPA / GSM multi-mode handset. The celebrated mobile is being dubbed the Samsung SGH-T578H, which is equipped with a software-defined modem capable of achieving data transfer rates of 2.8Mbps. TD-SCDMA network deployments have already been completed in ten major cities in China, and it should be upgraded to support Release 5 (HSDPA) of the TD-SCDMA standard in time for users to enjoy streaming content from the Beijing Olympics. Regrettably, there's no mention as to when the aforementioned mobile will be released, but we're sure this trio won't let it go unnoticed should that day come.

[Via MobileTechNews, image courtesy of 163]

It sounds like the days of dropped calls and endless frustration when leaving TD-SCDMA coverage and entering a GSM realm are nearing an end, as Beijing's T3G Technology and NXP Semiconductors have introduced the "world's first voice automatic handover of multi-mode TD-SCDMA and GSM/GPRS/EDGE in a handset." Just as it sounds, the technology will provide bi-directional on-the-fly, automatic handovers between TD-SCDMA and GSM networks, and any equipped mobile can "automatically scan for available networks" and switch over when necessary "without any adverse effects." Apparently, the two firms have already validated the claims on a number of Chinese network environments, but we've no idea how soon this peace making creation will get rolled out to the masses.

With China having just finalized their TD-SCDMA specification the skids were greased for a quick 3G deplyment, right China Mobile? Not so, big boy. After four years of waiting, the 1.3 billion Chinese will have to wait just a bit longer -- China's state controlled media is reporting that 3G testing has been extended into Q4 of 2007. While that's bad news for the 400 million or so current Chinese subscribers, it especially difficult for chip and handset makers who were counting on tapping that new revenue stream as early as Q1 of this year by some estimates -- a stream measured in tens of billions of dollars. On the flip side, that means 3G-enabled iPhone and BlackBerry clones will be delayed at least another 9 months as well... so it's not all bad news.

[Thanks, Eric]