Chinese government on Wednesday officially awarded the long-awaited licenses for third generation (3G) mobile network to the country's three telephone operators.

China Mobile, the world's largest mobile phone carrier, got a license to deploy 3G networks based on TD-SCDMA, a home-grown 3G standard. Smaller rivals China Unicom and China Telecom were granted licences for WCDMA and CDMA2000 respectively.

The Chinese government hopes the new telecom investment following the 3G licensing would help stimulate the country's slowing economy and create more jobs.

Li Yizhong, minister of industry and information technology, said at an industry conference in December that China will spend 280 billion yuan on 3G networks in 2008 and 2009.

Chen Jinqiao, chief engineer from China Acedemy of Telecommunication Research under MIIT, further estimated the 3G network construction would attract 1.8 to 2 trillion yuan related investments.

China's 3G licensing has long been postponed due to the government's support of TD-SCDMA, which was believed less mature than its foreign rivals WCDMA and CDMA2000.

(China Daily January 7, 2009)