The US$100 million joint venture is expected to give a major boost to TD-SCDMA, which is catching up with Europe-backed WCDMA and US-backed CDMA 2000.

    The joint venture, TD Tech Ltd, is registered in Hong Kong with Siemens taking a 51 per cent stake while Huawei owns the remainder.

    Karl-Christoph Caselitz, president of Mobile Networks at Siemens Communications Group, said TD-SCDMA "is ready for market."

    "With TD Tech, we believe we will make TD-SCDMA a success in China," Caselitz said.

    With the initial success in China, Siemens and Huawei "will convince operators in other countries to launch 3G networks based on the TD-SCDMA standard," he added.

    Siemens and China's Datang are the major developers of TD-SCDMA technology.

    Guo Ping, managing vice-president of Huawei, the largest telecoms equipment maker in China, said TD Tech Ltd plans to launch commercial products in the second or third quarter of this year.