Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE have been confirmed as network suppliers for China Telecom’s first round of CDMA deployment, according to a TradingMarkets report. The report states that both companies have each won 40 percent of the total deal – believed to be worth around CNY27.9 billion (US$4.1 billion) – whilst Alcatel-Lucent has won 20 percent. Fujian Fujitsu is reported to have won deals for the supply of China Telecom’s SMS centres in eight Chinese provinces.

Last month, China Telecom announced it plans to spend RMB80 billion (US$11.7 billion) over the next three years in upgrading the network. The operator is planning to commercially launch the network in February next year and is aiming to more than double the number of subscribers currently on the network to around 100 million by 2010. China Telecom is taking over the deployment of CDMA operations in the country from China Unicom as part of China’s industry restructuring.