Huawei wins China Mobile GSM contract

DELHI, INDIA: Huawei Technologies, provider of next generation telecommunications network solutions for operators around the world, today announced that it has won a GSM expansion contract with China Mobile, the largest mobile services provider in China.

Valued at approximately USD700 million, the contract represents 23.6 percent of China Mobile’s GSM group purchase project and is the second largest share. Huawei also doubled its share of this year’s GSM group purchase project as compared to 2006.

Under the agreement, Huawei will expand China Mobile’s GSM coverage in 30 provinces in China, including Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangsu, and Shandong with the deployment of thousands of GSM core and radio products and services.

China Mobile selected Huawei’s innovative EnerG GSM solution which includes a new generation BSC (Base Station Controller) based on an ALL-IP PARC platform (Platform of Advanced Radio Controller) and IP-based BTS (Base Transceiver Station) family. The BTS family supports a unified 2G/3G platform that can help operators replace old equipment and form future-oriented networks so as to protect their long-term investments.

With a long lifecycle, GSM technologies continue to represent significant market opportunities and Huawei remains committed to invest resources in this field with the worldwide introduction of numerous unified 2G/3G IP-based solutions. In 2004, Huawei successfully deployed the world’s largest mobile softswitch core network for China Mobile, which was the first step in transforming its mobile infrastructure into an ALL IP based network.

"Huawei adopts a holistic approach to GSM and UMTS technologies to help operators migrate their mobile networks toward an ALL-IP FMC environment. With the EnerG GSM solution, Huawei offers operators a wide range of capabilities that not only enhance their ability to compete, but also provides a robust platform from which to seamlessly evolve existing GSM networks into next generation IP-based UMTS/HSPA/LTE networks." stated Mr. Yu Chengdong, President of Huawei Wireless Networks.

Huawei serves the world’s top mobile operators, including Vodafone, Telefonica, Orange, T-Mobile, Telecom Italia Mobile and China Unicom. With abundant experience in deploying large-scale networks, Huawei is one of the most reliable partners in network transformation. The shipment of Huawei GSM BTS in 2006 exceeded 300,000 transceivers, and is expected to reach up to 1 million in 2007. Recently, a GSM radio network based on IP architecture was deployed by Huawei for the first time, which will bring the mobile network to the ALL-IP era.

China Mobile is the leading mobile services provider in China, with the world's largest mobile subscriber base and unified, contiguous all-digital mobile network.