China Leapfrogs 3G for 4G

Wonder why China hasn’t implemented 3G? Well, they just don’t care about 3G and the reason is that they’ve had their eyes set on 4G all this time.

Yesterday, the Chinese unveiled the first 4G standard in Shanghai. Initiating a testable standard has cost them less than $20 million (19.3 million), which will give them transfer rates of up to 100 Mbps.

This 4G rollout, surprisingly, doesn’t appear to be a government initiative. Instead, a group of (ten) “leading domestic institutions” called “FuTURE Project” picked up the tab. The trial phase is currently ongoing in Shanghai and will last until 2010.

It’s almost a certainty that by the time 3G will be offered by foreign entities to the Chinese people at the end of this year or early in the next, many of them, especially those living around the Shanghai area, will find 3G oddly retro.