After years of delay, China issued its third-generation mobile-phone licenses to its three main state-controlled carriers today, in a move that the government hopes will boost the country’s economy. As expected, China’s dominant carrier, China Mobile, got a license for homegrown 3G standard TD-SCDMA, China Unicom received a license for Europe’s WCDMA standard, while China Telecom got North America’s CDMA 2000, Reuters reports.

China is the world’s biggest mobile market, with 634 million subscribers as of the end of November and market leader China Mobile controlling 72 percent of it. According to the Telegraph.co.uk, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is expecting 500 million people to sign up for 3G internet and video-enabled services in the next five years. It remains to be seen, however, what the operator can do with TD-SCDMA, which the government has thrown its considerable support behind. Delays in the license handout were meant to give the domestic standard some space to grow up. But 3G trials using the standard have been less than impressive, with both insiders in China Mobile and consumers complaining that experience is less than compelling.

In December, Industry and Information Technology Minister Li Yizhong estimated that the mobile operators would spend around $41 billion dollars in their 3G networks in the next two years. Telecoms equipment makers, including Siemens, Ericsson and Nokia, as well as domestic firms Huawei Technologies and ZTE, are expected to benefit immediately now that the licenses have been handed out.

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