China Mobile Ltd. on Thursday asked equipment providers to submit informal bids, kicking off a round of bidding for TD-SCDMA equipment, said an informed source quoted by China Securities News.

The bidding, which involves dozens of equipment suppliers, will identify providers for the Chinese company's TD-SCDMA commercial network.

The company ran equipment comparison tests just before the Spring Festival. The test results are likely to determine contract shares.

China's TD-SCDMA Industry Alliance disclosed that a number of foreign companies such as Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel, Ericsson and Siemens have joined the bidding through their China-based joint ventures. Domestic providers are also putting in bids.

Earlier reports revealed that the TD-SCDMA procurement bids will be worth 26.7 billion yuan in orders from three major telecom operators, China Mobile Ltd. (NYSE: CHL), China Telecom Ltd. (NYSE: CHA) and China Netcom Ltd. (NYSE: CN). The money will be used to buy network equipment and mobile handsets.

China Mobile will build TD-SCDMA commercial networks in eight cities -- Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Qinhuangdao and Xiamen -- before 3G goes into operation.

Different from the TD-SCDMA technical networks, which already exist in Xiamen, Baoding and Qingdao, the commercial networks will involve a certain number of handset users.

Analysts say that even though China is yet to award 3G licenses, the country is actively developing TD-SCDMA operations.

Editor: Donald