In a fairly embarrassing turn of affairs China has said it will delay issuing 3G licenses until after the countries telcos finish restructuring—and until after the Olympics. “The restructuring will involve China Mobile developing services for the home-grown TD-S platform, China Telecom will buy China Unicom CDMA network in order to offer CDMA2000 services while China Netcom will merge with China Unicom to co-develop WCDMA services”, reports Forbes. The upshot is that the only 3G technology available during the Olympics will be TD-S, which is undergoing a “trial” in eight cities. Someone of a suspicious mind might think that this is the Chinese government’s way of giving its homegrown standard a boost without annoying large trading partners by mandating a particular standard. Telegeography has noted that China Mobile will invest around RMB 4 billion (US$519 million) on 2 million TD-S handsets in October.

• China Approves Use Of All 3G Standards
• 4G Network Launched In Shanghai
• US Official Urges China Not To ‘Push’ TD-SCDMA