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A new domestic operator should take charge of launching the country's homegrown third-generation (3G) TD-SCDMA mobile phone technology, a telecommunications industry official said.

TD-SCDMA, or Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access, is the standard being developed by China. The other two standards already used internationally are W-CDMA and CDMA2000.

A new operator must meet three conditions, said Deng Shoupeng, a standing director of the China Federation of Information Technology Promotion.

The operator must be internationally competitive, have long-term experience in telecommunications operations and shouldn't currently possess a mobile license, said Deng, who was speaking at a seminar on the mobile phone industry in Beijing on Monday.

China has two operators holding mobile licenses. The larger of the two by subscribers China Mobile (Hong Kong), the listed arm of China Mobile Communications, operates a GSM network. China Unicom, which is the listed arm of a group that includes China United Telecommunications, operates a GSM and CDMA network.

Deng said it was necessary for a new domestic operator to be responsible for the TD-SCDMA launch because the two existing operators would find it difficult to roll out a new technology that would vie with their existing networks.

Deng also said China doesn't need to wait until next year before it issues 3G licenses and he said to wait longer will affect the development of TD-SCDMA.

The later it gets to putting the Chinese standard into operation, the less likely users will switch to it as the other two international standards develop, said Deng.

This is a sensitive time, said Deng. The government needs to make a decision, but it needs to find the most suitable timing for it.

¡°This decision is being made at the highest level,¡± he said.

The Federation of IT Promotion was approved by the Ministry of Information Industry to be a place for discussion and promotion of the information industry. Key directors of the federation include officials from the Ministry of Information Industry.