China Mobile awards LTE contracts, report suggests

Half of China Mobile’s LTE infrastructure contracts have been won by local suppliers Huawei and ZTE, according to a report from Reuters that cites industry sources. The report suggests that Ericsson, Alcatel Lucent and NSN have picked up around ten per cent of the business each with their Chinese competitors bagging 25 per cent apiece. The combined value of China Mobile’s LTE contracts is $3.2bn, Reuters said.

China Mobile is the largest operator in the world by subscriber numbers, with 764 million subscriptions at the end of June 2013, according to Informa’s World Cellular Information Service. Informa forecasts that the operator will have more than 125 million LTE subscribers by the end of 2018.

China has yet to issue licences for LTE spectrum. In July the country’s Xinhua News Agency reported that the licensing process was being accelerated and local press sources have suggested recently that licences could be awarded in early October.

The LTE Asia conference is taking place on the 18^th-19^th September 2013 at the Suntec, Singapore. Click here to download a brochure for the event.