Motorola, China Unicom In US$300 Million GSM
Multi-Contract Network Expansion Deal
Monday July 10, 7:59 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
Network capacity will double in eight provinces where 421 million people reside
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 10, 2000-- Motorola Inc.'s (NYSE:MOT - news) Network
Solutions Sector (NSS), one of the world's leading suppliers of GSM (Global System for Mobile Communication) systems,
said today that it has signed 10 new digital cellular network expansion contracts with China Unicom worth a total of about US$300 million.
Under the terms of the contracts, of which 20 percent involve China Eastern Communications Company Limited (Eastcom) and Guangzhou Jinpeng Group Co., Ltd. (Jinpeng), Motorola will expand China Unicom's GSM 900 networks in eight of China's major provinces, which together boast a population of 421 million people. Motorola's market-leading Horizonmacro GSM infrastructure solution will be used to expand the GSM networks in Guangdong, Fujian, Shandong, Jiangsu, Hunan,
Jiangxi, Shanxi and Xinjiang provinces, plus China's special economic zone of Shenzhen. The contract with Unicom Jiangsu
marks the second time in just two months that Motorola NSS has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract to enhance
Jiangsu GSM network.
China Unicom's GSM network capacity will double as a result of the expansion work, to 10.5 million subscribers, when
completed by year-end. Motorola, which supplied China Unicom's first GSM network to Guangdong in 1995, is the
number-one system supplier for China Unicom in terms of the system coverage and business volume.
In addition to the GSM 900 network expansions in the eight provinces, Motorola also will deploy GSM 1800 systems for
China Unicom in Shandong and Guangdong provinces. The new GSM 1800 systems, which have a total capacity of 1 million
subscribers, represent the first GSM 1800 network deployments for China Unicom.
``These contracts will further strengthen our leadership in this challenging marketplace, and we are looking forward to helping
China Unicom plan their next-generation, multimedia wireless networks as they begin to offer subscribers mobile Internet
services,'' said Kao Ruey Bin, general manager of China Operations, Motorola NSS's Greater China Network Solutions
Division.
``We share with our customers a real excitement for the potential the wireless Internet market will provide and are working
closely with them to bring the wireless Internet to China quickly,'' Kao added.
Eastcom and Jinpeng have licensing and joint venture agreements with Motorola to manufacture, distribute and provide
service for Motorola's GSM and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) cellular infrastructure products within China.
Eastcom has been supplying Motorola's digital cellular equipment in China since 1995, while Jinpeng started providing
Motorola equipment in China 1999. |
