AIPEI, June 8 (Reuters) - Two of Taiwan's three biggest telecom operators are considering adopting China's homegrown TD-SCDMA 3G mobile network standard, a boost for the fledgling technology's bid for international acceptance.
Chunghwa Telecom <2412.TW> and Far EasTone <4904.TW> are in talks with Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), which signed a deal with China's Datang Telecom <600198.SS> to set up a trial TD-SCDMA network on the island, an ITRI spokeswoman said.
This would make it one of the first publicly announced cases of a company outside of China setting up a TD-SCDMA network.
South Korea's SK Telecom <017670.KS> and France Telecom <FTE.PA> have previously expressed interest in the Chinese technology, although nothing concrete has been done on a commercial basis.
"Chunghwa and Far EasTone are talking to us about their interest in the technology," said ITRI spokeswoman Canny Jiang, adding that unlisted VIBO Telecom and Tatung Telecom were also talking to them about using the TD-SCDMA standard.
"They haven't said they'll set up a network in Taiwan, and there are no concrete plans right now, but we're in talks about it," Jiang said.
Chunghwa Telecom and Far EasTone officials were not immediately available for comment.
The move by Taiwan telecom companies is another sign of warming ties between the two sides, and comes about a month after China's top telecom operator China Mobile <0941.HK> said it wanted to buy a 12 percent stake in Far EasTone.
China Mobile is a a key player in promoting the TD-SCDMA standard as it is investing billions of dollars to set up a third-generation (3G) mobile network in the world's largest mobile phone market.
Smaller Chinese operators China Unicom <0762.HK> and China Telecom <0728.HK> have said they will use the WDCMA standard and CDMA2000 standard, respectively.
