Wireless phone service to shut down by 2011

Chinese telecom regulators have ordered China Telecom and China Unicom to close their wireless telephone service, Xiaolingtong, in the next three years to clear the way for the development of the country's home-grown 3G standard TD-SCDMA.

China Telecom and China Unicom confirmed that they were told to shut down the low-cost wireless telephone service, technically known as the personal access system, by the end of 2011.

The government is reportedly worried that Xiaolingtong will interfere with the country's upcoming TD-SCDMA service signals, which has recently been granted an expanded frequency band close to that currently used by Xiaolingtong.