China Unicom Ltd. has chosen Alcatel-Lucent to build WCDMA 3G mobile networks in 14 Chinese provinces. The contract win supports ALU’s decision to stick with the WCDMA business despite losses.
First deployments in the cities of Tianjin, Baoding, Wenzhou, Taizhou, Guiyang and Guilin are slated to be completed in May.
ALU has been working with China Unicom for 2G networks for some time, but when it comes to the 3G expansion it has to share the limelight with Ericsson, which has won 30 percent of the contract, covering 15 provinces, while Nokia Siemens Networks has contracts for 11 provinces.
China Unicom has said it plans to invest $14.6 billion in 3G mobile services from next year through 2010.
