Chairman of China Mobile Wang Jianzhou says that the company will sign a TD-CDMA purchase contract with Nokia to make the Finnish firm its supplier of dual-band handsets compatible of connecting to both GSM and TD-SCDMA networks.

Prior to this announcement, China Mobile completed its two rounds of TD-SCDMA tender offers. However, Nokia did not participate in the bidding. Commenting on its absence, David Tang, vice president for Nokia Worldwide, says Nokia's former chip supplier is Commit and because of the company's bankruptcy, Nokia has to find a new partner, which led to the delayed launch of its TD-SCDMA handsets.

Tang did not reveal the name of its new TD-SCDMA chip supplier.

Apart from Nokia, other mobile phone companies such as Motorola and Sony Ericsson also expressed their interests in TD-SCDMA. China Mobile says the company is conducting negotiations on purchasing dual-band handsets from some of these manufacturers.