Alcatel-Lucent and its Chinese partner Datang Mobile said?Wednesday that they have won the largest share of China Mobile's tender for the second phase of its trial 3G, or third generation, network based on the home-grown TD-SCDMA technology.

Under the deal, Alcatel-Lucent and Datang Mobile will provide TD-SCDMA equipment and services in 11 cities, including Nanjing, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Changchun, Hefei, Guiyang, Kunming, Xi'an, Lanzhou, Yinchuan and Urumqi.

On the project's completion in June 2009, subscribers in the 11 cities will be able to enjoy a full range of multimedia services including multimedia messaging service and video telephony, according to Alcatel Shanghai Bell, Alcatel-Lucent's Chinese subsidiary.

Both sides declined to reveal the contract value. ASB and Datang Mobile garnered 25 percent of the bid, said a company source who declined to be identified.

The deployment of China Mobile's phase II TD-SCDMA (time division-synchronized code division multiple access) network will cover 28 cities nationwide, which will be ready by the middle of next year, said the telco.

Upgrading the network equipment is set to cost 5.8 billion yuan (US$852 million), industry insiders said.

"China Mobile is making substantial investments in the country's next generation mobile communications infrastructure to ensure that China's citizens have access to some of the most sophisticated mobile services," Olivia Qiu, ASB's president, said.

China will issue 3G licenses probably at the end of this year after the reorganization of the telecommunications industry. The related 3G investment will hit at least 200 billion yuan, according to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

China Mobile will invest heavily to upgrade its 2G networks to TD-SCDMA networks, covering 95 percent of cities nationwide by 2010, according to Wang Jianzhou, the telco's chairman.

In 2007, ASB and Datang completed construction of the TD-SCDMA networks in Shanghai and Guangzhou under the first phase.

ZTE, Motorola and ASB also announced recently that they won orders from China Telecom to upgrade its CDMA networks.

(Shanghai Daily December 18, 2008)