China Mobile Ltd. (SEHK: 0941, NYSE: CHL) lately launched its first packet transmission network (PTN) equipment tender, taking a lead in commercial application of PTN in China. PTN is regarded as a next generation transmission technology.
The bidding documents are only available for seven PTN equipment providers that once took part in the PTN tests conducted by the carrier. They include Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., ZTE Corp., Alcatel Shanghai Bell Co. Ltd., FiberHome Telecommunication Technologies Co. Ltd., and so on. The documents were returned back on October 20.
So far China Mobile has not elaborated on how many equipment it plans to buy beyond saying it will be decided on a case-by-case basis in terms of the scale of the city. The PTN equipment it is buying will be mainly serve corporate users of 2G and 3G services.
China Mobile requires the PTN equipment to have features of packet transmission, protection, clock synchronization, and time synchronization.
China Mobile was the country's first telecom carrier to apply PTN technology in its transmission network and began network equipment tests in July 2008, in which 90% of the equipment supplied by five participating providers passed.
China Telecom (SEHK: 0728, NYSE: CHA) used to be the pioneer in research and adoption of new technologies for network transmission, but this time it loses clout to China Mobile because it has been struggling to pull off integration of CDMA and GSM networks after it took over the CDMA networks from China Unicom.
As China is ushering into the 3G era, Chinese carriers' 2G network capacity is falling short of the surging demand for 3G data transmission. China Mobile has been cutting spending on MSTP equipment that briefly supports voice business and focusing itself on PTN.
It also hopes the PTN can give its broadband businesses a boost. As it is speeding up its network upgrading, PTN will become the focus of its broader strategy.
China Mobile pulled off its final round of tests in which PTN was applied in real business environments in a host of its subsidiaries, including those in the provinces of Guangdong, Hubei, Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
China Mobile's provincial branches are drawing up MSTP (Multi-Service Transfer Platform) to PTN mobile network transfer plans. It wants to have completed the transition by 2011.
China Telecom lately began its own round of PTN testes, while China Unicom (SHSE: 600050) plans to initiate its own PTN tests later.
Source: 163.com