Japan's Oki and China's Huawei have agreed to collaborate in the mobile WiMAX business to the telecom carriers in Japan.
OKI will provide Huawei's mobile WiMAX Series products to telecom carriers in Japan starting in the fiscal year ending March 2008. OKI will also provide its products globally with the support of Huawei.
"We are pleased to work with OKI as a long term partner, since they are known as the pioneer in info-telecom systems in Japan. While OKI has supported the development of Japan's telecommunication industry for the past 125 years and has continued to provide high-quality products building on their technology, Huawei has been providing innovative solutions to meet our customers' needs in the WiMAX market," said Yan Lida, Managing Director of Huawei Technologies Japan K.K. "By working together, I believe we can lead the market by providing the best solutions and services to the Japanese customers."
Mobile WiMAX has been attracting attention as a communication technology to enable users to access information. It can be used, for example, for higher-speed mobile communication amongst 3G mobile phone users in the metropolitan area, or to enable those living in suburban areas, where laying out fiber lines or ADSLs can be difficult, to access services through a wireless system.
OKI has been conducting business in China from the early 1980s, and has been working with Huawei in various areas including optical components. Huawei provides wireless products worldwide, including mobile WiMAX and 3G mobile phone systems. The company has an established reputation worldwide for its high technology level and the quality, and its rich developing resources.
"We are very excited to work in the wireless access area with Huawei, who is known for their solid technology and strong business track record worldwide. OKI will provide perfect solutions to the Japanese telecom carriers by combining our products with Huawei's products, and will deploy OKI's products globally working together with Huawei," said Yutaka Maeda, Executive Vice President of Oki Electric Industry, and chairman of Systems Network Business Group. "OKI has been strengthening its business structure in Next Generation Network (NGN), aiming to expand sales to 100 billion yen in the fiscal year ending March 2009. We position wireless access products as an important product line in our strategy for developing NGN business."
With this collaboration, OKI will provide total solutions to telecom carriers in Japan. It will offer network equipment such as WiMAX base stations and base station control equipment for infrastructure, built-in terminals and PCMCIA card terminals. It will also offer services to evaluate, adjust and improve equipment as well as to provide maintenance service from its offices located in 300 locations throughout Japan.
As a value added reseller (VAR), OKI will customize Huawei's mobile WiMAX products for the telecom carriers in Japan. OKI will also develop its own WiMAX-WiFi converter, WiMAX communication module for embedded systems, and indoor base station solutions such as pico cells. For base station solutions in particular, OKI plans to develop solutions with the support from Huawei.
Huawei, on the other hand, will develop applications and customize products based on OKI's marketing information, to promote mobile WiMAX products suited to Japan. It will improve end-to-end WiMAX solutions worldwide by incorporating OKI's WiMAX terminals and indoor base station solutions into Huawei's WiMAX products.