China Unicom eyes seven vendors for CDMA upgrade
(UPDATE: Updates with confirmation, details)
By Jonah Greenberg
BEIJING, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Seven telecommunications gear makers have moved one step
nearer to winning deals to upgrade the CDMA network of China Unicom Group, the country's
second largest cellular carrier, industry executives said on Monday.
Unicom has asked the seven firms to set up trial next-generation systems in
China, a sign they may eventually share in contracts worth at least $500
million, executives said.
Spokeswomen at Motorola Inc (NYSE:MOT - news), Ericsson
(NasdaqNM:ERICY - news) and Nortel Networks (Toronto:NT.TO -
news)(NYSE:NT - news) told Reuters their firms had been asked by
Unicom in the past few weeks to set up trial systems using CDMA
2000-1X, or 2.5 generation, technology.
Unicom is expected to upgrade and expand the Code Division Multiple
Access (CDMA) network, which its Hong Kong-listed unit China Unicom
Ltd plans to launch in January alongside its current service, which uses the
GSM standard.
While vendors are paying for the trials, contracts for upgrades to CDMA
2000-1X nationwide could total at least $500 million, executives at one of the firms said.
Unicom has given few details on its planned upgrade, and officials declined to comment on Monday.
CDMA technology is owned by San Diego-based Qualcomm Inc (NasdaqNM:QCOM - news) -- which collects royalties on the
deals -- and rivals the GSM (global system for mobile communication) standard that dominates in Asia and Europe.
DEALS MAY BE ANNOUNCED NEXT YEAR
Motorola spokeswoman Mary Lamb said Unicom had asked Motorola to set up trial CDMA 2000-1X systems in Beijing and in
Jiangxi province.
``The deployment has already started, it was started a few weeks ago, and it will be completed by the end of the year and then the
evaluation will begin,'' Lamb told Reuters.
``I should think that's indicative of the paths that they're taking,'' she said.
Spokeswomen at Ericsson and Nortel said the firms were among the seven vendors chosen to set up trial CDMA 2000-1X
systems.
Samsung Electronics Co , Lucent Technologies Inc (NYSE:LU - news) and Chinese firms Huawei Technologies and Zhongxing
Telecom Equipment (ZTE) had also been asked by Unicom to hold trials, the China Daily newspaper said.
The newspaper quoted sources close to the deal as saying the contract winners would be announced at the start of next year.
Samsung would set up trial networks in Shanghai, Lucent in Guangzhou, Nortel in Hangzhou, Ericsson in Chengdu and Huawei
and Zhongxing would set up trial networks in Nanchang city in Jiangxi province and in Hainan province, it said.
Executives at Samsung, Lucent and Huawei were not available for comment on Monday.
All of the vendors except for Samsung shared in $1.46 billion in CDMA network gear contracts that Unicom first announced in
May. That network, which will be launched in January, will be able to handle about 15 million subscribers although some analysts
question whether CDMA will prove popular with Chinese consumers.
China has more than 136 million mobile phone subscribers, the lion's share of them using GSM networks. |
