China Mobile has selected nine equipment vendors for its initial 4G contracts, which are worth a reported 20 billion yuan ($3.27 billion).
In a notice published on Wednesday, the mobile giant said it picked Ericsson, NSN and Alcatel-Lucent (through Shanghai Bell Alcatel-Lucent), along with six domestic vendors including Huawei, ZTE, Datang Mobile, Wuhan-based FiberHome Technologies, Potevio and New Postcom Equipment Company Ltd for the year’s most anticipated 4G equipment tender.
These companies together will help China Mobile build 207,000 TD-LTE base stations in 31 provinces around the country.
China Mobile didn't disclose financial details of the contracts and the percentage of the contracts each vendor wins. But Reuters earlier cited sources as saying that Huawei and ZTE each secured 25% of the contracts, while Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent and NSN have picked up around 10% each.
The TD-LTE equipment tender is China Mobile’s latest push in 4G. The operator in July selected 16 companies to supply 206,500 devices - including MiFi (150,000), data cards (30,000), CPE (20,000) and handsets (6,500) – for its TD-LTE networks across the country. Huawei and ZTE were the biggest winners in this tender as well.
Separately smaller rival China Telecom has reportedly sent out a tender to ten suppliers - including the nine companies that won China Mobile’s TD-LTE contracts - for its LTE (hybrid TDD and FDD) trial networks.