Motorola today announced it won US$431 million of GSM contracts with China Mobile – the world’s largest operator by subscribers – in the first half of 2008. In a statement, Motorola said approximately 50 percent of the revenue from these contracts was recognised in its H1 reporting this year. The deals will see Motorola’s GSM network equipment and services deployed across 16 provinces and municipalities of China, and follows US$394 million contracts over the same period last year.

The announcement is a further fillip for Motorola, in the same week that it recruited ex-Qualcomm COO Sanjay Jha to become head of its loss-making handset business and group company co-chief executive. Last month, it was announced that Motorola’s profitable Home and Networks Mobility business – responsible for the China Mobile win – is to split into three separate entities. Motorola said it aims to strengthen and deepen its cooperation with China Mobile after the restructuring of the country’s telecom industry, which began earlier this year. Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent have previously announced billion-dollar contract deals with China Mobile this year. China Mobile, in addition to upgrading its GSM network that currently has over 400 million subscribers, is also set to deploy 3G services based on local homegrown technology TD-SCDMA in time for the Olympic Games this month.