Rumor: China Mobile Selects Four 4G Smartphone Vendors
Tencent Tech, 5/02/13
An industry source has informed Tencent Tech that the results of China Mobile's (NYSE: CHL; 0941.HK) recently announced 4G terminal tender for smartphones have been determined early, and that seven products from terminal vendors Huawei, ZTE (0763.HK; 000063.SZ), China Wireless Technologies (2369.HK) subsidiary Yulong Computer Telecommunication (Coolpad), and Samsung, have been selected.
The 4G terminals selected through the new tender are intended for the summer market. China Mobile will reportedly procure 160,000 TD-LTE data terminals, including roughly 30,000 MiFi routers, 100,000 CPE terminals, and 10,000 TD-LTE handsets. The handsets will include two models each from Huawei, ZTE, and Samsung, and one from Coolpad: the Huawei Ascend D2 and Huawei Ascend Mate, the Samsung Galaxy i9308 (Galaxy S III) and GT-i9308D, the ZTE U9810 and U9815 (Memo), and the Coolpad 8920. The models may be given new commercial names upon their official launch.
China Mobile is currently in talks with equipment providers regarding the scale of its orders, and a formal document stating its carrier band and technical requirements should be sent out in late April or early May. Final confirmation of order prices and volumes will follow in June.
The 4G terminals selected through this tender will be capable of supporting TD-LTE, FDD-LTE, TD-SCDMA, WCDMA, and GSM, as well as 10 LTE frequency bands. The MiFi routers will support Category 4 LTE for data rates of up to 150 Mbps, and will support document sharing over MicroSD cards and connectivity for up to 10 devices simultaneously.
Tencent Tech's tests in Beijing have shown basically full 4G network coverage for the metropolis. The 4G devices taking part in China Mobile's tender will be able to detect 4G signals and to fall back smoothly to 3G networks in the absence of coverage. The 4G network is not currently open to user-end devices, making voice and data connectivity impossible at present.
Editor's Note: For more information on this topic, please see "Rumor: China Mobile to Tender for TD-LTE Equipment in May," MD 4/19/13 issue.
Keywords: supply contract Samsung i9308D Grand Memo ZTE U9810 handset model China Mobile Samsung Yulong smartphone wireless 4G 000063.SZ 0763.HK Huawei ZTE Coolpad China Wireless CHL TD-LTE 0941.HK 2369.HK Huawei Ascend Mate Huawei Ascend D2 Coolpad 8920 handset procurement bidding Galaxy i9308 phablet
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