According to a Chinese TD-SCDMA equipment provider, China Mobile will launch its third round 3G wireless network equipment tender on March 16, 2009.

According to the document published by China Mobile, the company will buy equipment for its 39,000 base stations deployed in 200 Chinese cities, including Foshan, Wuxi and Wenzhou. This tender is reportedly 1.6 times the size of the second one.

Six equipment makers that have independent TD-SCDMA development capacities, including Datang, ZTE, Huawei, Potevio, Nokia Siemens Networks, and Ericsson, are expected to participate in the third round tender. At the same time, New Postcom and FiberHome, which use Datang's equipment, may also join the tender.

China Mobile's TD-SCDMA network develop plan shows that the company had completed the network deployment in ten major Chinese cities over the last year and it is currently implementing the coverage in another 28 cities. China Mobile is expected to start providing the 3G service in these 38 cities before June 2009.

In addition, China Mobile plans to invest CNY58.8 billion in TD-SCDMA network construction this year to build 60,000 new TD-SCDMA base stations and realize network coverage in 238 cities. By the end of 2009, the total number of TD-SCDMA base stations will be over 80,000 and the network will cover more than 70% of prefecture-level cities in China.