Nokia clinches contract to supply China Mobile with a million TD-LTE devices

Nokia Networks has been commissioned to provide its latest TD-LTE-Advanced technology to the world’s biggest mobile operator China Mobile. The operator aims to install a million TD-LTE base stations by the end of 2015. Winning the contract to supply the equipment makes Nokia Networks the telco’s the largest non-Chinese vendor.

The TD-LTE-Advanced technology is based on the Flexi Multiradio 10 Base Station. It supports a wide range of frequency bands including 2.6 GHz (band 41), 2.3 GHz (band 40) and 1.9 GHz (band 39). Using carrier aggregation software it can make both macro and small cells run more efficiently by combining the various spectrums available to create faster data transmissions. The Nokia equipment was also chosen for its Flexi Zone small cells, which are governed by a Flexi Zone Controller, which China Mobile will use to support high-traffic locations, in both internal and external locations.

Other features identified as deal breakers were the LTE equipment’s network planning and optimization services. These will help China Mobile to embark on small cell planning, performance assurance and optimisation.

Mike Wang, the President of Greater China for Nokia Networks, promised a ‘swift seamless’ global service delivery. “This deal is a big achievement that makes us the number one non-Chinese network vendor in China for the third year in a row,” said Wang.

In September China Mobile demonstrated 220 Mbps peak data transmission rates at Mobile World Congress Shanghai 2015, which were created on Nokia Networks’ on 3.5 GHz interband TD-LTE-Advanced carrier aggregators. They have also jointly demonstrated 4.1 Gbps speeds with Nokia’s TDD-FDD carrier aggregation.

Nokia Networks says it now has 50 commercial references on six continents for the delivery of TD-LTE radio technology.