China Mobile, the world’s biggest mobile operator, has awarded Huawei and ZTE the lion’s share of its second batch of 4G contracts.

According to sources cited by Reuters, the two domestic suppliers won the “bulk” of the contracts – ZTE grabbed a 34 per cent share and Huawei got 31 per cent.

Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent each secured 9 per cent, while Nokia obtained 8 per cent.

The size of the contract wins were not disclosed

The entire second batch of 4G contracts, said the sources, represents 40 per cent of China Mobile’s quota of 4G contracts to be sold this year, which is the equivalent of about 100,000 base stations. The additional 60 per cent – about 160,000 base stations – will be decided later this year.

Reuters reported last September that Huawei and ZTE had also won big in China Mobile’s first batch of 4G contracts, each bagging a 25 per cent slice of the total CNY20 billion pie.

Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Nokia each got around 10 per cent of the total 4G contract value.

China Mobile’s expansion of its TD-LTE network represents an enormous opportunity for suppliers. The operator said it planned to invest a whopping CNY225.2 billion during 2014, up more than 20 per cent from last year, with nearly half of that sum being doled out on mobile networks.

China Mobile plans to complete the rollout of more than 500,000 TD-LTE 4G base stations by the end of 2014, covering more than 340 cities.