SFR, Bouygues sign mobile equipment deals with Huawei
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: French cellcos SFR and Bouygues Telecom has signed their mobile network equipment contracts with Chinese equipment maker Huawei Technologies while the deal concluded at the end of last year.
Until now, Nokia Siemens Network (NSN) and Ericsson supplied their 3G radio infrastructure to SFR and Bouygues, respectively.
The major reason behind this shift is cited as the price factor although Huawei said it was not undercutting rivals but more, valuing its technology at the right price.
BSNL’s metro Wimax franchisees unveiled (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Companies operating the Wimax services for Indian state-run telco BSNL on a franchise basis in major urban areas have been unveiled by the operator. Teracom, Tech Solutions, Adishwar and Ampouls will roll out Wimax services for BSNL in 16 urban circles.
Cisco’s technology partner Teracom will deploy Wimax services in eight circles, including Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, UP (East), Assam, Jammu & Kashmir and the North East.
WiMax networks in Chennai, Haryana, West Bengal and Himachal Pradesh will be operated by Ampouls in partnership with vendor Alvarion. Adishwar has won the tender for Kolkata and Tech Solutions will rollout Wimax services in Orissa, UP (West) and Tamil Nadu using equipment from Chinese vendor ZTE.
BSNL’s original urban Wimax franchise tender in February was cancelled after it was revealed that several companies that were awarded franchises existed only on paper. This time big name vendors like Soma Networks, Huawei and Gemini Communications, all refrained from bidding.
Home and Networks Mobility Division sale suspended by Motorola
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: The sale of home and networks mobility division of Motorola has been suspended due to the low valuations on offer. A price of $4 billion to $5 billion had been expected by Motorola from the division but the range of the bid has fallen to $3 billion to $4 billion.
The future of the division is now under review as the company has witnessed a rise in the sale of handsets. Besides, Motorola is also giving a second thought whether the handset and networking businesses should stay under a single parent.
The next round of bids was expected to be due in mid-February in which China’s Huawei was named as one of two potential bidders.
Omantel’s NGN contract awarded to Huawei
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Huawei, a Chinese equipment vendor has been awarded an OMR10 million (USD25.9 million) contract by Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel) to expand the incumbent fixed line operator’s next generation network (NGN).
Huawei superseded US equipment maker Cisco Systems, French company Alcatel-Lucent and Swedish mobile phone manufacturer Nokia to break the deal.
ZTE’s Android to be launched this quarter
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Android-powered smartphones would be launched by ZTE which has joined the Open Handset Alliance (OHA), in the first quarter of 2010.After phone and PC maker Lenovo and rival kit vendor Huawei, ZTE becomes the third Chinese equipment supplier to join the OHA.
The announcement was made after Korean phone maker LG plans to launch 20 smartphones based on a range of operating systems including Android, Windows Mobile and Linux.
According to Lin Qiang, general manager of ZTE Smartphones, the company has has invested heavily in the research and development of Android smartphones during the last year because of its trend and popularity and is committed to invest in this innovative platform to meet the market demand.
UMTS900 network deployed by MTN Ghana, Huawei
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: UMTS900 equipment has been deployed by Huawei in the MTN Ghana network. For the first time in Africa, a successful deployment of UMTS is done for voice, video and data in the 900MHz frequency band.
The network is based on Huawei’s 3900-Series Node B. A bandwidth of just 4.2 MHz is supported by the system to provide UMTS service while working seamlessly with the existing GSM network.
It is intended by the MTN to use the technology as a means of extending its 3.5G network to more rural communities.
Ericsson and NSN picked by TeliaSonera for LTE roll-out
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: TeliaSonera has contracted Ericsson and Nokia Siemens to roll out its LTE networks in Sweden and Norway. Ericsson has been selected as the sole supplier of the common core network as well as providing LTE radio access and NSN is required to cover LTE radio equipment, LTE network management systems, and LTE multi-vendor integration and care services.
LTE services were started by TeliaSonera in the late 2009 in Oslo and Stockholm, covering the city centres to test the services.
Sweden’s 25 largest municipalities and recreation areas and Norway’s four largest municipalities will be covered under the network roll-out during 2010 and 2011. City network in Oslo will continued to be finalized by Huawei.
100Gbps transmission trial completed by Telefonica and Huawei
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Spanish telecoms giant Telefonica along with Chinese vendor Huawei completed a field trial of 100Gbps transmissions over a distance of more than 1,000km. A high speed 100Gbps link between Valladolid and Zaragoza stretching for approximately 1,022km has been constructed by Huawei, under the trial without using electrical regeneration.
The trial was based on Huawei’s OSN 6800 WDM/OTN transport platform with the transponder inserted in subracks, and the fibre type used was standard G.652. According to Christian Chua, president of Huawei’s Transport Network Product Line, 100Gbps is the most advanced transport technology and is crucial to operators’ continuous development and the construction of green ultra broadband networks.
Domestic sales boost up Huawei’s revenue
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: Despite unfavorable market conditions, revenue of USD 30 billion has been achieved by Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies in 2009. 28.8 percent rise in sales and 26.5 percent rise in profits were recorded last year.
The rise in the revenue has been attributed to domestic market sales, mostly due to the telecommunications companies’ investments in 3G. 46.5 percent of total revenues were due to domestic revenues, up from about 25 percent in 2008. Overseas revenues accounted for 53.5 percent of the total. USD 36 billion revenue has been expected by Huawei this year.
BSNL’s GSM mega-tender freezed due to probe (India)
www.WirelessFederation.com/news: 93 million line GSM tender has been put on hold by BSNL, Indian state-owned operator, after finding itself under scrutiny by government investigators. Until the investigations of all allegations of irregularities in the tender process are completed, no order will be placed by the telco.
Huawei which was one of just two equipment suppliers selected for the project was dumped from the tender process after post-bidding negotiations stalled. Amid allegations that BSNL has broken CVC rules, fresh probe has been launched by the Central Vigilance Committee (CVC) on the company.
BSNL accepted that they have already renegotiated with Ericsson and the talks could result into 20-25% reduction in price and savings of up to $1 billion. However, an emergency meeting has been planned by India’s Prime Minister’s Office to discuss BSNL’s poor performance. The company is running in loss since two years and has lost its position of second largest operators of India and has slipped to the fifth position.
First delay in the order occurred after disqualified bidder NSN attempted to get the tender blocked by the courts. Second hindrance was caused by the objections of the security agencies citing concerns over Huawei’s possible ties with the Chinese government.
