ZTE has secured the bid in the commercial 5G SA core network in China Mobile’s 2020 centralized procurement of new 5G SA core network equipment.
ZTE has won the bid of 12 provinces in six regions for the public-oriented network, and secured the bid for 35 percent shares in 31 provinces in China for the industry-oriented network.
Once completed, the project will become the world’s largest 5G SA network, ZTE said in a statement on Tuesday.
Recently, China Mobile chairman Yang Jie said the carrier would build 250,000 base stations this year and dedicate 100 billion yuan or $14.13 billion to 5G investment. The state-owned China Mobile is the largest telecom operator in the world in terms of subscriber base.
Telecom network suppliers such as Huawei, Nokia and Ericsson are also looking for similar 5G network deals from China Mobile.
China Mobile’s 5G SA core network project employs ZTE’s Common Core solution. ZTE said its Common Core solution can meet the access and integration requirements of 2G/3G/4G/5G/fixed simultaneously.
ZTE, which reported RMB 66.58 billion sales revenue from mobile operator business in 2019, has bagged 46 commercial 5G contracts in major markets, such as Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (MEA).
Earlier, ZTE said that it has helped the Zhejiang branch of China Mobile send China’s first 5G message based on GSMA UP2.4 standard in Hangzhou, China, making China Mobile the first Chinese operator to implement the 5G Message Center (5GMC).
It is expected that China Mobile’s 5G message will enter into commercial use by the end of June 2020, which represents a formal countdown to the commercial use of 5G messages in China.
ZTE earlier said the company secured the western network project in China Mobile’s phase-13 centralized procurement for inter-provincial backbone transport network equipment. The western network, covering 19 provinces of China, will be the world’s largest optical transport network (OTN).
