Alcatel says wins China Mobile 4G network order

PARIS - Alcatel-Lucent said on Monday that China Mobile Ltd had chosen its lightRadio small-cell technology for the nationwide roll-out of the world's biggest high-speed mobile broadband network.

Telecoms equipment makers have been waiting for China Mobile's 4G work to lift the fortunes of an industry hit by a lack of spending worldwide.

China is now the world's largest market for mobile data services and smartphones, increasing at a rate of more than 50 per cent each year, Alcatel-Lucent said in a statement.

Industry sources had told Reuters last month that China Mobile Ltd had awarded initial 4G contracts worth around 20 billion yuan ($3.2 billion), with Chinese firms securing more than half of it and foreign firms winning about a third.

China Mobile has more than 750 million subscribers, which accounts for more than 60 per cent of the total mobile subscriptions in the country.

The Alcatel-Lucent award, whose financial terms were not disclosed, is 11 per cent of China Mobile's strategic plan to deploy more than 207,000 TD-LTE base stations in China by the end of 2013.