Mobile phone networks that include internet access – wireless telephony’s so-called third generation or “3G” – have been a magnet for irrational exuberance in the telecoms sector over the last decade. Despite all the hype about the “convergence” of phones and personal computers, commercially viable 3G networks have been slow to emerge.

In an attempt to give Chinese telecoms equipment makers a leg up in what was expected to be a lucrative market in supplying hardware and handsets for these networks, China decided in the late 1990s to launch its own home-grown 3G technology standard.