Due to various legal issues and repeated bureaucratic and governmental delays, 3G services are not yet available in China. As a result of this, a consortium of Chinese "leading domestic institutions", known as the FuTURE Project, have developed a new set of wireless protocols and services that enable data transmission far in excess of 3G potential.
The home grown technology allows a data transfer speed of 100 megabytes per second, which is much faster than the maximum 10 Mbps allowed by current 3G systems. Moreover, it has the potential to be even faster than many wired entry-level broadband connections. This massively increases the potential of services such as high-definition web-broadcast TV, as well as boosting the ability of users to download music files in a matter of seconds. However, it could also be seen to exacerbate the problem of internet addiction in China, an issue which is fast becoming of global relevance.
Trails of the technology took place in Shanghai, costing 150 million yuan (US$19 million), and was acclaimed by the Chinese government as the world's first 4G rollout. However, this claim isn't strictly true; while this is indeed the first commercial rollout of 4G mobile phones, Samsung Electronics gave a demonstration of 4G technology on a moving bus in Seoul, South Korea, in August 2006.
Nevertheless, the developers remain understandably proud of their achievements. The China Daily quoted You Xiaohu, a leading telecommunications expert, with the comment, "It testifies that the technology we've developed is feasible, and brings us one step closer to put it into commercial use."
Ultimately, it seems that the race is on between China and South Korea in the realm of 4G mobile phones, with both Samsung and the FuTURE Project planning to put the technology into commercial use by 2010 in their respective regions. Meanwhile, most industry analysts predict that China will finally obtain 3G licenses in most large cities across the country some time this year.
