Rumor: CDMA Bidding Results Finalized

Communications Weekly, 9/22/08

Industry insiders have revealed that the results for the first round of China Telecom's (NYSE: CHA; 0728.HK) tender for wireless CDMA equipment have essentially been finalized. Alcatel-Lucent secured 20% of the total, but failed in Guangdong. ZTE (0763.HK; 000063.SZ) received around 15% of the orders. Huawei received 30%, securing contracts for the cities of Guangzhou, Xiamen, Wenzhou, Ningbo, Wuxi, and Foshan, while Motorola took 18% of the total, winning contracts in Shenzhen, Huizhou, and Dongguan. Nortel won a 17% share, while Samsung lost out to other network equipment manufacturers everywhere but in Shijiazhuang.

Sources are also claiming that at the end of this year or beginning of the next, China Telecom (NYSE: CHA; 0728.HK) will initiate a bidding process for CDMA equipment worth an estimated RMB 5 bln for the remaining local CDMA access networks throughout China. There are 300 networks in total, and the current round of bidding relates to 81 of these networks. The new tender will involve requests for 30,000 base stations, but, in light of a significant decrease in the price of equipment, the actual number may be larger than expected.

Editor's Note: There are multiple rumors currently circulating regarding the CDMA bidding results. For more background on this topic, please see "Rumor: ZTE, Huawei Top CDMA Wireless Bid", MD 9/09/08 issue, and "Rumor: China Telecom Releases CDMA Equipment Bidding Results", MD 8/26/08 issue.

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