Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE have secured the majority of a contract to provide up to 250,000 5G base stations to China Telecom and China Unicom, Chinese press reported.
With these new contracts, the two Chinese vendors have already secured more than 80% of China’s 5G base station contracts.
China Unicom and China Telecom awarded the majority of the 5G contracts to Huawei and ZTE, with each of the Chinese vendors obtaining 35.9% of the deal, with Ericsson winning 17.9%. The final 10.3% was obtained by Chinese company Datang Mobile Communications.
In September last year, China Telecom and China Unicom agreed to cooperatively build a 5G mobile network, with the main aim of reducing costs.
Under the “co-build, co-share” deal, the carriers will work together to outline districts in 15 cities for the network construction, with their respective total scale of 4G base stations in mind.
In February 2020, China Unicom said that it will work with China Telecom to finish construction on 250,000 5G base stations across the country by the end of the third quarter. In the first half of the year, the two carriers aim to build 100,000 5G base stations in 47 prefectures and cities across China.
Earlier this month, China Mobile, the world’s largest operator in terms of subscribers, awarded most of a CNY37.1 billion ($5.2 billion) 5G contract to Huawei and ZTE.
According to local press reports, Huawei won 57.3% of the value of contracts across 28 provinces, with ZTE taking 28.7%, Ericsson 11.5% and China Information Communication Technologies 2.6%.
In the new phase of its 5G program, China Mobile is aiming to acquire over 232,000 5G base stations as it looks to extend coverage to 28 regions across China.
The Chinese carrier has already completed the first phase of its 5G network deployment. Currently, China Mobile provides 5G coverage in 50 cities. The operator is aiming to have a total of 300,000 5G sites across China by the end of 2020.
In its first tender, conducted in 2019, the operator selected Nokia and Ericsson as well as Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE.
Operators in China are expected to deploy a total of 500,000 5G base stations this year, according to recent information provided by the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
By the end of March, Chinese operators had already installed 198,000 5G base stations and had 50 million 5G users, the Chinese government said.
