Nortel sees cdma surge in China.
Nortel sees China CDMA surge
REUTERS in Shanghai
Nortel Networks, a top supplier of fibre-optic network equipment, expects China's CDMA network capacity to hit about 30 million by the end of next year, up from 10 million at present, a senior executive said.
The Canadian company also signed deals worth C$150 million (about US$98 million) to provide wireless equipment in China that it hoped would give it a stronger foothold in the country, said Nortel's China senior manager Alex Pan.
"CDMA [code division multiple access] is one kind of the wireless technologies that we will be deploying in China for China Unicom," Mr Pan said in an interview on Thursday at a signing ceremony presided over by Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.
The latest deal, with Shanghai Datang Mobile Communications Equipment, brought the value of Nortel contracts in China to about US$400 million, Mr Pan said.
"We supply the key components to Datang, which will enable them to locally manufacture and sell to Unicom," he said.
China Unicom Group, the second-largest Chinese mobile phone operator, confirmed on Thursday it planned to build a 10 million subscriber network this year that used Qualcomm's CDMA technology.
Nortel, in China since 1972, hopes the deals will help strengthen its position in China's wireless market against competitors like Lucent Technologies, Cisco Systems and Alcatel.
China, the world's second-biggest mobile phone market, has 200,000 to 300,000 CDMA users, compared with more than 60 million using the rival global system for mobile communications (GSM) technology.
Roll into one
GSM dominates most markets, but CDMA networks have some advantages: the technology uses airwaves more efficiently and is potentially cheaper to upgrade into future-generation networks capable of high-speed Internet service.
CDMA allows more phone calls and data to be crammed into precious spectrum. Analysts and industry officials said all mobile networks - including GSM - eventually would be upgraded to incorporate CDMA technology.
Mr Pan said he expected China's CDMA network capacity to surge over the next two years from the current 10 million.
"It's going to reach something like 30 million by the end of next year," Mr Pan said.
"They [GSM and CDMA] will continue to grow. CDMA technology is evolving. Eventually the third-generation [technology] will be migrating to one standard," Mr Pan said.
He declined to comment on how much China contributes to overall revenues. The telecommunications equipment maker said on Thursday its revenues in the first quarter of 2001 would be US$6.3 billion with a loss per share of four cents.
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