Nokia pushes Chinese 3G with joint venture
Nokia is to set up a joint venture company with mobile telephony equipment and service provider China Putian.
The new company, which will be based in Wuhan, will focus on developing network solutions for 3G standards including wideband-CDMA and the China-specific protocol TD-SCDMA, which was developed by the China Academy of Telecommunications Technology in a collaboration with Siemens.
The two parent companies have invested around €90 million ($108 million) in the venture, with China Putian and Nokia owning 51% and 49% shares respectively.
"The joint venture will launch TD-SCDMA and W-CDMA systems in 2006," said Nokia in a statement, adding that it would continue to sell W-CDMA systems under its own brand name in China and throughout the rest of the world.
Nokia and China Putian have co-operated on GSM technology for over ten years already, while Putian was one of the first companies to pass TD-SCDMA field trials organized by the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry.
