Through the partnership, Alcatel will provide 9,892 base stations for China Telecom’s deployment of LTE-TDD and LTE-FDD technologies in 12 provinces in China.
China Telecom has more than 181 million subscribers, and is deploying its LTE network to help meet the demand for high-speed mobile internet. The company was awarded 4G licences earlier this month.
Michael Combes, CEO at Alcatel-Lucent, said that providing broadband access across the world was part of the company’s Shift Plan, which is an internal group strategy to reposition the company from operating primarily as an equipment vendor.
“With this innovative platform, China Telecom will be able to launch its LTE services rapidly, allowing its customers to quickly enjoy the services enabled by this technology,” he said.
The agreement with China Telecom follows an LTE-TDD agreement with rival Chinese operator China Mobile, China’s largest mobile service provider. Co-created by Alcatel and China Mobile, the companies have launched a metro cell solution, which will enable China Mobile to boost coverage and capacity in busy areas, such as shopping centres, stadiums and high-traffic roads of the country.
The vendor completed small cell tests on high-traffic roads in several high populated cities of China as part of a trial.
“We are pleased to be working closely with China Mobile on the deployment of their 4G TD-LTE services. The application of our co-created small cells technology underlines the closeness of our co-operation,” added Combes.
