China Mobile to offer ZTE biggest 3G deal
ZTE Corp, a Shenzhen-based telecommunications equipment provider, is likely to take the biggest slice of the 26.7 billion yuan worth of contracts offered by China Mobile Communications Corp to build a third-generation mobile-telephone network, market sources said.
China Mobile was expected to unveil tender results in the next few days for the construction of its 3G network, which is based on the homegrown TD-SCDMA technology, the sources said.
The network will cover eight cities including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
China Mobile, has invited eight equipment providers including ZTE, TD-Tech, a joint venture between Nokia-Siemens Network and Shenzhen-based Huawei Technologies, Datang Mobile and China Putian to bid for the contracts.
'China Mobile has decided the results for the TD-SCDMA network earlier this week and is seeking approval from the government,' a source familiar with the situation said yesterday.
'The results will be announced within this week or early next week,' another source said.
According to the timetable, the winners of the contract must finish building the network by July for handset trial. The network will be opened for commercial trial by October.
A spokesperson said ZTE had not been informed of the results. China Mobile could not be reached for comment yesterday.
China International Capital Corp said in a research note this week that ZTE was ranked first by China Mobile in terms of technology level and bidding price. The brokerage estimated that ZTE would win 3.5 billion yuan to four billion yuan worth of contracts for building the TD-SCDMA network infrastructure and providing related handsets.
The network will have a capacity to serve more than two million users and about 15,000 base stations.
CICC also revealed that China Mobile had opened a tender for a 35 billion yuan nationwide expansion of its GSM network with a capacity of 700,000 users.
The tender results are expected to be finalised by its units in various provinces this month.
Big-budget works
Value of China Mobile TD-SCDMA network contracts, in billion yuan: 26.7
