The network expansion, including SC4812 and SC300 base stations, network optimization services and training, is scheduled for completion in the second half of 2003. When completed, it will more than double the capacity in those six cities, enabling service for up to 2.2 million subscribers.
This is the first contract Motorola has won in China Unicom's CDMA Phase III, which is a CDMA2000 1X expansion. In May 2001, GTSS signed CDMA 95A contracts with China Unicom worth approximately US$407 million for the CDMA infrastructure that laid the groundwork for China Unicom's migration to CDMA2000 1X. That was followed in October 2002 with contracts valued at nearly US$446 million to expand the network and upgrade to CDMA2000 1X in the city of Beijing and in 10 provinces including Guangdong, Jiangsu, Fujian, Hebei, Jilin, Shanxi, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Xinjiang and Gansu. All of the contracts included network equipment and deployment as well as CDMA network optimization services and technical training.
This is Motorola's 15th announced CDMA2000 1X contract, and the 7th CDMA2000 1X contract with operators in the Asia Pacific region.
Motorola's CDMA2000 1X architecture builds upon existing 2G or 2.5G networks by adding packet based network elements. For the China Unicom network, these network elements include the access node from Motorola's global strategic alliance partner Cisco Systems, that enables the radio access network to be Internet Protocol (IP) capable."
Posted to: www.cellular-news.com/story/9218.php