Cutting-edge wireless technologies and terminal devices, ranging from wireless multimedia applications to mobile phones that can access the Internet, made a big splash at the Asia's largest telecom show in Beijing yesterday.

"It's a great event that focuses on future trends and applications in the telecom sector," said Zhang Chunjiang, vice-minister of information industry.

China's huge telecom market potential, together with the country's expected entry into the World Trade Organization, has attracted thousands of telecom companies from both home and abroad to the bi-annual telecom event - 2000 China International Communications Equipment and Technologies Exposition - which began yesterday and will run until Saturday.

The event showcases a range of network solutions and operation modes for the future of the mobile phone industry, including the broad-band GPRS (general packet radio system) network, mobile banking solutions and wireless multimedia transmission technologies.

It also showcases TD-SCDMA applications, a third-generation (3G) telecom standard developed jointly by China's telecom institutions and Germany's Siemens. The application has attracted a great deal of attention from both industrial officials and company participants.

"It is the first telecom standard developed and owned by China and we will make great efforts to commercialize TD-SCDMA as soon as possible," said Zhou Huan, chairman of Datang Telecom Group.

Datang plans to produce 10 original station modes based on the new standard and conduct network operation trials in the second half of next year.

Juergen Lagleder, vice-president of Siemens China, has high expectations for the application of TD-SCDMA in China.

"The TD-SCDMA application will reduce the costs of network migration by a large margin and will also benefit China's local telecom manufacturers," he said.

He emphasized the commitment of Siemens to co-operating with Chinese partners, asserting that the company will invest US$1 billion in the research and development activities of the mobile telecom sector in China.

The steady growth of China's mobile phone subscribers has meant that major producers sought every way to promote their new handsets at the exhibition.

At the event, Ericsson introduced the world's first GPRS handset, the R380, which can also support high-speed, data-heavy business.

Siemens demonstrated its newly-released mobile phones, including the WAP (wireless application protocol)-enabled 3518i and 3568i.

(China Daily Hongkong Edition)