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Huawei, No.1 Bidder for China Unicom Network Card PurchaseBEIJING, Apr 10, 2009 (SinoCast Daily Business Beat via COMTEX) -- Leading Chinese networking and telecommunications equipment supplier Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. announced on April 9, 2009 that it won a 44% share in bidding for China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd. (NYSE: CHU, SEHK: 0762, and SHSE: 600050)'s WCDMA network interface card procurement, ranking the first place among the participants. Unicom Huasheng Telecommunications Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of China Unicom, set up a division for wireless data products. The newly-established division is responsible for the customization and procurement of network interface cards and netbooks. China Unicom started the first-round bidding invitation for terminals, including data cards, in April. Besides the bidding results for data cards, the telecom carrier is to unveil the results for mobile phone procurement at the end of April. China Unicom is scheduled to kick off 3G trial commercial services in 55 cities on May 17, the World Telecom Day; and enlarge the coverage to 284 cities within 2009. China Mobile (SEHK: 0941 and NYSE: CHL) and China Telecom (NYSE: CHA, and SEHK: 0728) both initiated 3G trial commercial services earlier than China Unicom and started their first battle in the 3G arena with network interface cards. Depending on its advantages in CDMA technology, China Unicom used to hold a 75% share of the network interface card market. However, the landscape will change in the 3G era. China Unicom plans capital expenditure of CNY 110 billion or so for 2009, rising 56% from CNY 70.49 billion in 2008. Of the money, 35%, or CNY 38.7 billion, will be used for the WCDMA network construction. Its WCDMA network is said to have downlink speeds up to 14.44 Mbit/s, much faster than that of the 2G network. Telecom operators' Huawei network interface card procurement causes furious competition among terminal manufacturers. China Telecom started bidding invitation for 1.5 million CDMA EVDO data cards in February 2009, luring more than 40 companies, such as Huawei, ZTE Corporation (SZSE: 000063 and SEHK: 0763), and a number of newcomers. Shenzhen-headquartered Huawei won an over 50% share. China is the company's most important market in the world, noted an executive for Huawei. The company ranked No. 1 in the world's network interface card market with a 38% share, according to report by ABI Research in 2008. By now, its shipments of WCDMA network interface cards have topped 30 million, taking a nearly 50% market share. (USD 1 = CNY 6.83) Source: dycj.ynet.com (April 10, 2009) |