Because of numerous delays, China has had trouble rolling out 3G on its TD-SCDMA cellular standard. Now they are allowing construction of CDMA 2000 and WCDMA networks, North American 3G and European/Asian 3G respectively. 

China was originally trying to roll out their TD-SCDMA (which is actually German technology from Seimens), but it wasn’t working out the way they wanted it to. So far there isn’t any word on which companies will receive licenses to the technologies and when the licenses will be distributed. But it’s pretty clear that consumers and telecommunications companies will benefit from building up three standards and hopefully producing many handsets.

In celebration of the rollout, China has redesigned their flag. The above picture is only a mockup and should not be considered official.

[via Ars Technica]