The contracts are another indication that a crowded corporate field is jostling for elbow room to deliver wireless Internet technology to China’s potentially huge customer base.
The Hebei contract, estimated to be worth around $83 million, calls for Nortel to implement the seventh expansion of the province’s GSM 900/1800 dual-band digital cellular network, covering five southern cities and increasing network subscriber capacity by 1 million to a total of 5 million.
In Anhui and Guizhou provinces, Nortel said it would enhance existing GSM 900 networks to deliver GSM 900/1800 dual-band wireless service. Nortel also will increase Anhui’s network capacity by 140,000 subscribers to a total of 300,000, and it will boost Guizhou’s capacity by 330,000 to a total of 930,000. All three expanded networks are scheduled to launch commercial service by September.
These three network expansions will create strategic platforms for a whole new focus by China Mobile on profitable delivery of advanced mobile services, said Robert Mao, president and CEO of Nortel Networks China in a company statement to the press.
Nortel said its Wings of Light strategy unifying Internet protocol, optical and wireless networking products is helping wireless operators around the world speed time-to-market and time-to-profit as they prepare to offer next-generation wireless Internet services.
But competition for contracts in China has been fierce among wireless equipment providers that crave the chance to serve the huge potential market. This month, China broke the 100 million cell phone user mark, its government announced.
Under the terms of the latest contract, network expansion is scheduled in two phases. Phase one, totaling $154 million, started this month and is targeted for completion by year-end. Phase two, totaling $59 million, will begin soon after, with completion scheduled for the first half of 2002. The expansion projects are expected to increase network subscriber capacity by 2.8 million.
The contract calls for Motorola to install its Horizonmacro and Horizonmicro portfolio of GSM infrastructure products for Hunan Mobile’s province-wide network expansion. The company also will increase the network’s switching capacity.
