State Council Approves 4G R&D Programs
Sina Tech, 12/27/07
Premier Wen Jiabao presided over a meeting of the State Council yesterday which considered and in principal approved programs for the implementation of next-generation broadband wireless mobile networks. While a number of industry analysts haven taken this to refer to 3G networks, Wang Lijian, head of the Ministry of Information Industry (MII)'s News Department said it refers not to 3G, but to 4G technologies like LTE, and that the implication is approval of further R&D programs for 4G.
LENS: Based on speculation that what the State Council was approving was implementation of 3G network deployment, stock prices of China's TD-SCDMA-related companies jumped on December 27 (see "Chinese Telecom Stocks Spike on 3G Implementation News," MD 12/28/07 issue).
However, more careful scrutiny of the National Medium-Long Term Science and Technology Plan (2006-2020) released by the State Council in February 2006 reveals that "next-generation broadband wireless communications technologies" refers not to 3G, but to the following three areas: LTE, HSPA and 4G, wireless broadband access technologies such as WiMAX, and short-distance wireless connection system and sensor network technologies.
Keywords: Wen Jiabao State Council 3G 4G LTE wireless Wang Lijian MII MII News Department