China claims first 4G mobile system, but is it?

Stuart Corner
Tuesday, 30 January 2007 01:06

Business IT - Technology

However in March 2002 the Chinese press reported that a joint bid by Wuhan Network High-Tech Co Ltd, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and Shanghai Jiangtong University had been awarded a contract by China's Ministry of Science and Technology to conduct research into 4G as part of China's tenth Five-year Plan. The report said that 4G would be based on OFDM, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, as opposed to the CDMA of 3G technologies.

According to the Hubei Daily, the consortium was successful "because they boast great research and development strength in this field," and also because of successful work undertaken under item 863 in China's ninth five year plan.
 
Item 863 has been a feature of China's long term planning since the late 1980s and owes its name to the date (March 1986) of a letter to the central government from four Chinese scientists suggesting that "China adopt appropriate countermeasures to trace the development of high technologies in the world." Then premier, Deng Xiaoping, acted swiftly to respond to these recommendations.

There is yet no agreement on exactly what constitutes 4G technology. The ITU defines 4G technology as a future wireless telecommunications technology allowing data transfer rates of 1Gbps at nomadic circumstances and 100Mbps at mobile circumstances but how this will be achieved is still far from settled.

The spectrum for 4G technology will be decided at WRC (World Radiocommunication Conference) in October of 2007. The 4G mobile communications format is expected to become commercially available around 2010.