MobileMonday Global

^{ZTE is the big winner} China Mobile award TD-SCDMA contracts

ZTE Corp. and a partnership between Datang Mobile Communications Equipment Co. Ltd. and Alcatel Shanghai Bell Co. Ltd. announced this week that they have been successful in high-profile and potentially lucrative 3G infrastructure deals in China.

Both will become infrastructure suppliers to China Mobile Communications Corp. for the carrier's construction of a pilot network based on Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA).

The pilot program is very massive since in total about USD 3.1 billion is expected to be in it. The sum will include network and handset procurement, network construction, and operational costs.

ZTE is supposed to supply of wireless access infrastructure in various cities, including Beijing, Tianjin, Shenzhen, Shenyang, Qinhuangdao, and Xiamen, and the supply of core network products in a number of cities, including Beijing, Guangzhou, Xiamen, and Qinhuangdao.

Both Alcatel-Lucent and ZTE say that final contracts have not been signed.

Alcatel-Lucent spokesman says that the partnership between its Chinese subsidiary and Datang is on course to secure deals worth about 30 percent of the "overall network investment."

According to Light Reading the carrier's initial investment in network infrastructure (core and access) will be worth about 10 billion Chinese Yuan Renminbi (EUR 1 billion).

The source adds that ZTE gained about 54 percent of the capital outlay. That would make ZTE's deals worth about EUR 500 million. The vendor is not commenting on any valuations. Only a small percentage of that will go to ZTE's partner, Ericsson AB, according to the source.

The other vendor partnerships that will gain a smaller share of the spoils, according to our source, are TD Tech Ltd. , which will get 11 percent of the spoils, and Potevio-Nokia, which will get just 2 percent.

TD Tech is a joint venture between Siemens Communications Group , which owns 51 percent, and Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. , which holds the other 49 percent.

Potevio Co. Ltd. is the new name for China Putian, the company Nokia Corp. hooked up with in October 2005.

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