IDG has a good piece on China and its promise to have 3G technology happening at the Beijing Olympics, which would mean “visitors would be able to buy tickets for Olympic events and watch live video coverage on their 3G phones, as well as access information about restaurants, shopping and sightseeing. Athletes and staff would also use 3G to access information related to the games”. The article covers the slow development of the Chinese 3G standard TD-SCDMA, the change from a predominantly fixed-line telco market to a majority mobile phone telco market, the desire for a restructure in the industry and the fact that a restructure would bring in the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC), which will have to work with the Ministry of the Information Industry (MII) on the issue. All in all, the licenses for the networks aren’t likely to be issued before 2008, leaving precious little time to build a network. The telcos know this and have therefore already started building TD-SCDMA networks (China Mobile, at least), probably because it’s the one standard they are absolutely certain the MII will issue licenses for.