China has announced a trial run of a home-grown 4G network in Shanghai, the China Daily has reported (AFP quotes them here in the SMH). “The 4G trial in Shanghai cost 150 million yuan (19 million US dollars) and was billed by the government as the world’s first rollout of the technology, the newspaper said.” It’s the world’s first roll-out because it is a Chinese technology/standard—other 4G systems have been demonstrated. The newspaper said the Chinese plan to have the technology in use before 2010, but after its repeated delays in announcing its 3G standard TD-SCDMA ready I’m not holding my breath. If the Chinese government does decide to skip 3G altogether and go straight to 4G I can imagine the feeling in companies that have put so much effort into the TD-SCDMA standard to curry favor with the government and gain access to the huge Chinese market. At least this standard should be able to compete with other 4G standards without giving them a several-year headstart.