In what has become something of an annual event, Nokia has signed frame agreements worth a combined total of more than EUR 2 billion with China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom. The agreements will see Nokia, via the Nokia Shanghai Bell joint venture, deploy technologies and services through the end of 2019 for the three Chinese service providers to support both fixed and mobile infrastructure requirements.
The points of emphasis among the three service providers differ slightly:
·China Mobile will emphasize use of Nokia’s radio access, core, passive optical network (PON), IP routing and optical transport, software-defined networking (SDN), network management and professional services portfolios.
·China Telecom will seek to use Nokia’s offerings to improve country-wide 4G LTE coverage and hot spot capacity. Nokia will provide FDD-LTE radio access technology, home CPE, core routers, multi-service edge routers and optics, and various services. The company also will collaborate with China Telecom on 5G.
- China Unicom will deploy Nokia FDD-LTE radio access, multi-access edge computing, virtualized IMS, SDN, IP routing and optical transport, and fixed network equipment. China Unicom hopes to use these technologies to expand its 4G LTE customer base, while researching and developing Internet of Things (IoT) services and the evolution to 5G via the use of artificial intelligence in its networks.
Nokia adds it will provide a variety of services expertise under the frame agreements, including network planning, implementation, systems integration, maintenance, and performance optimization.
Nokia acquired Nokia Shanghai Bell as part of its acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent (see “Nokia pulls trigger on Alcatel-Lucent buy” and “Nokia looks to recast Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell joint venture as Nokia Shanghai Bell”). The Chinese company is a joint venture with China Huaxin Post & Telecommunication.
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