Alcatel-Lucent wins China Mobile’s TD-LTE trial network for 3 cities

Alcatel-Lucent’s Chinese flagship company, Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, has won a contract to deploy China Mobile’s TD-LTE trial network rollout in Shanghai, Nanjing and Qingdao.

Under the terms of the contract, Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell will deliver approximately 3,000 base stations in the cities of Shanghai, Nanjing and Qingdao, three major economic hubs of China. Using Alcatel-Lucent’s innovative TD-LTE technology, China Mobile will extend its large scale trial to launch new services in the cities early next year.

China Mobile, the world’s largest wireless operator, with currently over 700 million subscribers, is fast-tracking its TD-LTE deployment to match smartphone demand in China. The country is now the world’s largest market for smartphones; in the first quarter of 2012, 22 percent of global smartphone shipments were destined for China.

Soaring demand for mobile broadband access in China is being fueled by consumers accessing video, gaming and other high-bandwidth applications. China is now the world’s largest market for mobile data services at an increasing rate of over 50 percent each year. To meet this demand in the dynamic economic centers of Shanghai, Nanjing and Qingdao, the new TD-LTE network deployed by Alcatel-Lucent will increase the speeds, capacity and quality of China Mobile’s network. It will also give China Mobile the ability to operate with a smaller footprint, lower power-consumption and even greater efficiency.

Ben Verwaayen, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent said “It is our honor to be selected by China Mobile for the world’s largest TD-LTE network. With our industry leading LTE solutions and expertise in deploying LTE networks worldwide, we will help China Mobile dramatically reduce technical complexity, power consumption and operating costs in the face of sharp traffic growth.'

The rollout follows a comprehensive trial of TD-LTE technology and the signing of a co-creation agreement between Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile in Shanghai. Since February 2012, Alcatel-Lucent and China Mobile have been developing and testing a series of lightRadio breakthrough technology elements. In August 2012, the companies extended this agreement by signing a MoU to conduct joint nanocell research in China. Nanocells are a type of radio access technology that integrates wireless small cells with carrier grade Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) access points.

Alcatel-Lucent is supplying China Mobile with a complete end-to-end TD-LTE solution including radio access products – the Alcatel Lucent 9926 Digital 2U eNodeB, TD-LTE Remote Radio Unit (RRU) for the multiple spectrum bands being used by CMCC as well as core networking equipment and the Alcatel-Lucent’s 5620 Service Aware Manager (SAM) network management tool.