By staff reporter Ming Shuliang and intern reporter Xiao Hua

China Mobile, the country’s largest wireless operator, has unveiled a plan for lower tariffs aimed at luring customers to services based on China’s homegrown mobile standard, Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access, or TD-SCDMA.

The new tariff plan for devices with the third-generation (3G) standard was posted September 8 on the Web site of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

China Mobile is encouraging customers to switch from 2G devices and plans to increase the number of TD-SCDMA users from the current 175,000 nationwide to 100 million in three years.

The company said it would implement the new tariffs on trial basis in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Tianjin for one year, starting in September. Customer reactions in these cities would determine roll-out plans for other test areas.

China Mobile has already launched commercial trials of TD-SCDMA in Beijing and nine other cities.

According to the price-cut proposal, per-minute voice tariffs for TD-SCDMA customers would be 45 percent to 73 percent below charges for China Mobile’s existing 2G service plan.

The carrier said it would offer four packages targeting separate groups of customers, with prices for each package below comparable 2G service charges.

“3G networks have lower costs (than 2G) for operating voice services, which means operators can offer the services at cheaper prices,” said a China Mobile senior manager.

Chen Yunhong, an analyst at Guojin Securities, told Caijing the relatively immature 3G network features lower quality and less coverage than the existing 2G network, making tariff discounts helpful for attracting customers.

The government has promised to issue licenses for 3G wireless services after completing an industry reshuffle announced in May, which will reduce the number of telecoms nationwide to three from the current six.

China Mobile has been assigned to offer TD-SCDMA services while the other operators -- China Unicom and China Telecom – would offer services based on alternative 3G standards known as WCDMA and CDMA2000.