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Nortel, Ericsson Win China Unicom CDMA Deals
Nortel Networks and Ericsson said Friday they had won contracts to supply China's second-largest mobile phone operator China Unicom Group with network gear using Qualcomm Inc's CDMA standard.
But neither company would reveal financial details.
Nortel announced it would supply seven Chinese provinces and cities with equipment for CDMA networks capable of handling 2.54 million subscribers.
CDMA technology owned by US-based Qualcom crams more traffic into network space than rival technology Global Standard for Mobile Communications (GSM), which is the standard through most of Asia and Europe.
The Nortel contract was awarded to a joint venture subsidiary, Guangdong Nortel Telecommunications Equipment Ltd.
It is one of many expected CDMA deals to be doled out by China Unicom to a host of foreign and Chinese telecoms manufacturers.
China Unicom Group, the parent of Hong Kong listed China Unicom Ltd, plans to invest 70 billion yuan (US$8.46 billion) in its long-awaited CDMA network over three years, according to official Chinese media.
Last month, China Unicom unveiled the planned CDMA network's US$2.42 billion first phase to 13 prospective foreign and Chinese vendors.
An Ericsson spokesman declined to give any details at all of the contract his company had won.
An executive at Chinese telecoms gear maker Shenzhen Zhongxing Telecom Corp said it had won contracts to supply CDMA cellular network gear capable of handling 1.14 million subscribers in 10 Chinese provinces in China.
These included Qinghai, Ningxia, Hubei, Guangdong, Yunnan, Guizhou, Tibet, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia and Hainan, the Shenzhen-based executive said.
On Thursday, South Korea's Information and Communication Ministry said Korean telecoms and electronics maker Samsung Electronics had won a US$500 million deal to suppply CDMA network gear to China Unicom.
Korean media said Motorola Inc and Lucent Technologies had been asked to join the massive buildout.
But Motorola spokesmen said the company had not been informed of any deal.
Lucent representatives in Beijing were not available for comment.
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