Nortel Networks and peers Motorola Inc. and Lucent Technologies Inc. received some much-needed good news on Monday with hundreds of millions of dollars in new contracts in China.
Company officials and unnamed sources told the media Monday the trio will supply equipment to upgrade the year-old CDMA wireless phone network run by China Unicom and its overseas listed China Unicom Ltd.
Nortel said it will provide equipment worth $280 million to five provinces and one municipality with a combined population of 387 million people, 26.2 per cent of China's population.
Motorola said its share was worth $446 million to provide equipment in 11 provinces. Lucent valued its contract in the hundreds of millions dollars (all figures in U.S. dollars).
Over the past few fiscal quarters, Nortel has announced a string of contracts in China as the Asian powerhouse provides some relief from the persistent slump in the telecommunications market seen elsewhere. China continues to expand fixed and wireless phone networks, even though demand for infrastructure has slowed this year.
The contracts would be the second major CDMA deals between each of the vendors and Unicom.
Motorola, Lucent, Nortel and Sweden's Ericsson were the four largest equipment suppliers to the original network, built last year. Motorola supplied $400 million worth of equipment, Nortel $275 million and Ericsson $200 million.
Company officials and unnamed sources told the media Monday the trio will supply equipment to upgrade the year-old CDMA wireless phone network run by China Unicom and its overseas listed China Unicom Ltd.
Nortel said it will provide equipment worth $280 million to five provinces and one municipality with a combined population of 387 million people, 26.2 per cent of China's population.
Motorola said its share was worth $446 million to provide equipment in 11 provinces. Lucent valued its contract in the hundreds of millions dollars (all figures in U.S. dollars).
Over the past few fiscal quarters, Nortel has announced a string of contracts in China as the Asian powerhouse provides some relief from the persistent slump in the telecommunications market seen elsewhere. China continues to expand fixed and wireless phone networks, even though demand for infrastructure has slowed this year.
The contracts would be the second major CDMA deals between each of the vendors and Unicom.
Motorola, Lucent, Nortel and Sweden's Ericsson were the four largest equipment suppliers to the original network, built last year. Motorola supplied $400 million worth of equipment, Nortel $275 million and Ericsson $200 million.
