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Nokia and China Telecom signed an agreement to expand the deployment of 4G technology in 19 provinces in China, ahead of the launch of VoLTE in 20017.
Nokia and China Telecom signed an agreement to expand the deployment of 4G technology in 19 provinces in China, while also paving the way towards the launch by the Chinese telco of voice-over-LTE (VoLTE) services in 2017 and the eventual deployment of 5G.
China Telecom, which now has 90 million users of 4G devices on its network after adding more than 31 million in the first six months of 2016, wants to improve the coverage and capacity of its 4G network through the use of Nokia’s Flexi MultiRadio 10 base stations.
The contract also includes the provision of project management, network design and installation services, while Nokia NetAct will be deployed to improve overall network performance.
Nokia has been working with China Telecom for some time, and this latest deal is expected to help China Telecom meet the demands of its growing 4G customer base. The telco’s total mobile customer base stood at close to 207 million by the end of June.
The telco said it saw 4G traffic increase by more than six times last year, and expects it to account for more than 90% of mobile data traffic on the network by 2017.
China Mobile, China Telecom and China Unicom currently dominate the local Chinese market. China Mobile is also the largest mobile operator in the world, reporting a total mobile customer base of 833.85 million at the end of March.
In May, China Broadcasting Network (CBN) became the country’s fourth telecoms operator after winning a licence from the government.
