The head of China Mobile, the world’s largest mobile phone group, said the country’s homegrown third generation mobile technology was “a few years behind” other international standards because of problems with handsets.

The news is a blow because China Mobile is expected to build its future 3G services on the TD-SCDMA standard, which is being developed in China. The group’s rivals are expected to adopt the European WCDMA and US’s CDMA2000 3G standards.