UpdateChina Mobile gears up for 4G network expansion

China Mobile, the world's largest wireless network operator by subscribers, has apparently kicked off its 4G network expansion by awarding the bulk of contracts to Huawei Technologies and ZTE, the mainland's two biggest telecommunications equipment manufacturers.

Citing industry sources, Reuters yesterday reported that China Mobile awarded supply contracts worth about 20 billion yuan (HK$25.1 billion) in its recent 4G infrastructure tender, with Huawei and ZTE getting about 25 per cent each of that total.

Swedish giant Ericsson, the world's largest supplier of telecommunications equipment, obtained about a 10 per cent share of the China Mobile tender, the sources said. French group Alcatel-Lucent and Finnish supplier Nokia Solutions and Networks each secured that same percentage share.

China Mobile, which had 744.965 million subscribers at the end of last month, published on June 21 its tender for network equipment based on the indigenously developed 4G standard called time-division long-term evolution (TD-LTE).

The tender, the financial terms of which was not disclosed, was for the build-out of about 207,000 TD-LTE base stations to cover the main districts of 100 major cities across the mainland.

A spokeswoman for Hong Kong-listed China Mobile declined to comment on the Reuters report, but said "there has been smooth progress" in the TD-LTE network equipment tender.