Motorola (MOT) has been selected for a major Phase 3.2 CDMA2000 1X wireless network expansion for China Unicom. Equipment for the new CDMA2000 1X network has been deployed and is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2004.
China Unicom awarded Motorola multiple contracts, which resulted in approximately US$344 million of orders, during the past six months. The majority of the revenue from these contracts, approximately US$271 million, already has been reported in 2004 quarterly earnings. The remainder will be reported in Q4.
These contracts cover expansion of the operator's CDMA2000 1X networks in 11 provinces including Beijing, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hebei, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Shanxi and Xinjiang. Motorola is providing equipment and global network services that will significantly enlarge network coverage. China Unicom estimates this expansion will enable it to grow the subscriber capacity of its 800 MHz CDMA2000 1X network by more than 5.4 million.
"Motorola has built a reputation as a leader in commercial CDMA deployment and is one of the key CDMA network infrastructure vendors in China," said Lu Jian Guo, vice-president of China Unicom. "Over the past 10 years, we have worked very closely with Motorola and they have laid a solid foundation for our GSM and CDMA infrastructure that allows for network optimization and easy upgrade. We have benefited from Motorola's vast experience in ensuring a cost-effective network deployment."
"Motorola's latest deal with China Unicom will allow the company to effectively scale up its network to successfully manage the explosive growth in the Chinese wireless market," said Simon Leung, senior vice president, Motorola, Inc. and general manager for its infrastructure business in the Asia Pacific region. "China Unicom is now well placed to deliver better voice calls, high-speed multimedia services and wireless applications to its customers, thus assuring its position at the forefront of the market."
Motorola has been the largest mobile wireless system supplier to China Unicom since 1994 when it began supplying GSM solutions, and has played an integral role in China Unicom's migration to advanced CDMA technology. China Unicom today has over 110 million subscribers on its CDMA and GSM networks nationwide.
Motorola is an established leader in CDMA technology having delivered one of the world's first commercial CDMA networks in Hong Kong in 1995. Its fully integrated CDMA2000 1X solution comprises industry-leading access and core technologies, robust system platforms, innovative applications, reliable services and end user devices. Motorola's CDMA 1xEV-DO solution has been commercially deployed in Asia and is being trialed and readied for commercial launch with other operators throughout the world.
