Urban warfare

It is a typical winter weekday on the third floor of the electronics market on bustling Huaihai Lu in central Shanghai. Phone salesmen lean against glass display cases, passing the time as the weather keeps most customers away. New Nokia and Samsung handsets sit next to local brands and off-market knockoffs.

Springing into action when asked about China's third-generation (3G) mobile standards, the shop clerks' recommendations are swift and clear: Go for WCDMA, they say, the standard given to China Unicom, one of the country's three mobile carriers. While the clerks cede that China Mobile offers the best 2G coverage, they rest their argument for 3G on the wide variety of phones available for WCDMA, the most prevalent standard outside of China. For the shop clerks, when it comes to picking a 3G carrier, handset choice is king.