
We've been hearing that China Mobile would have its act together and get
TD-SCDMA ready well in advance of the 2008 Beijing Olympics since
last November, and with merely months to spare, it seems things just may work out. Reportedly, the carrier is all set to begin commercial trials of the
home cooked 3G standard on April 1st, where it will be tested in Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Xiamen, Qinhuangdao and of course, Beijing. Initially, China Mobile Group will provide 20,000 lucky souls with free TD-SCDMA phones and subsidies of 800 yuan per month, while folks outside of that group can also walk into retail outlets and pick up discounted handsets on a whim. Maybe it's just us, but we'd probably hold off until those guinea pigs gave everyone else a heads-up of the network quality before we went dropping our own change on it.