China Mobile has awarded contracts for two 5G networks worth a total of CNY7.8 billion (US$1.1 billion) to three vendors, with Huawei receiving the majority of the contracts.
The first network will consist of approximately 63,800 base stations operating within the 2.6GHz to 4.9GHz bands, while the second network will deploy 23,141 sites using the 700MHz band in collaboration with China Broadnet.
In March 2023, China Mobile announced its plans to launch 260,000 5G base stations this year, bringing its total to 1.6 million.
According to the news, Huawei has been awarded contracts worth approximately CNY4.1 billion to install over 45,000 base stations, which is more than half of the total number of stations to be deployed between 2023 and 2024.
The remaining contracts will be divided among ZTE, Ericsson, Datang Mobile and Nokia, with estimated values of CNY2.1 billion (27%), CNY630 million (8.2%), CNY550 million (7.1%) and CNY400 million (5.2%), respectively.
This news is a relief for Huawei, as the company has been facing sanctions from the U.S. and has been excluded from many developed markets' 5G networks due to concerns about security.
