Subscribe

Huawei wins series of contracts in Africa

Contract value amounts to almost $500 million
Issued by Huawei Technologies
Johannesburg, 05 Apr 2005

Huawei has won a number of large telecoms contracts in Africa over the past six months amounting close to $500 million, supplying both fixed and mobile telecommunications solutions.

Kenya`s biggest mobile operator SAFARICOM has awarded Huawei a $34 million contact to reconstruct and update its Intelligent Network.

Michael Joseph, president of SAFARICOM, said the decision was based on Huawei`s cost-effective products and solutions, service-provisioning and research and development capability.

"A number of leading telecoms suppliers had been invited to compete for the bid, with Huawei winning the bid based on its superior price performance," he said.

Huawei has also signed two contracts with Zimbabwe`s state-owned fixed-line operator TEL*ONE and mobile operator NET*ONE, worth $288 million and $40 million respectively.

In the project with TEL*ONE project, Huawei is providing network expansion and optimising solutions which include switches, the national transmission backbone, CDMA, Intelligent Network and data communications products.

When the project is completed, the capacity of TEL*ONE`s fixed network is expected to increase by 500 000 users. The present infrastructure is being enhanced, enabling rural areas and remote cities and towns to benefit from the enhanced coverage. The project will also assist Zimbabwe in building an advanced national backbone transmission and datacom network.

In the NET*ONE project, Huawei is providing an entirely new set of GSM system and services in addition to the existing GSM 170 000 lines provided by Huawei in 2004. This will help the company further expand its network coverage and increase network capacity.

Huawei has also signed a contract with Nigeria`s second largest mobile operator Vmobile where it will provide GSM base stations worth $80 million. Huawei has also signed an agreement with the communications ministry of Nigeria to introduce next-generation network communications technology.

As part of the agreement, Huawei will cooperate with the communications ministry of Nigeria in the domain of cutting-edge technology, involving fixed network, mobile communications, optical transmission and data communications.

Huawei will offer Nigeria`s telecom operators the most advanced equipment for NGN, 3G, super-DWDM, high-end routers and technical training. This is part of a long-term strategy to support the healthy development of Nigeria`s telecom market.

At Vmobile, Huawei, as the main equipment provider to Vmobile, will deploy GSM wireless equipment across 15 of the 36 Nigerian states. Huawei is also a partner of Nigeria`s largest mobile operator, MTN.

To fulfil this aim, Huawei has invested $7 million to establish a multi-product training centre in the capital of Nigeria, started in August 2004, and has trained over 150 professionals for the Nigerian market.

Share

Huawei

Since 1999 when it began to develop African market, Huawei has gradually built its brand image as China`s cutting-edge hi-tech company among African leading telecom operators, with its high-quality products, excellent service and customised solutions. In October 2004, Mauritius operator EMTEL signed the commercial 3G contract with Huawei, making it the first such contract in Africa. Huawei has set up approximately 30 branch offices in Africa, and has deployed products in almost 40 African countries.

Last year, Huawei achieved US$1.05 million sales revenue from the international market. In 2004, Huawei is looking at over US$2 billion sales revenue coming from the international market.

Huawei Technologies

Huawei Technologies specialises in the research and development (R&D), production and marketing of telecommunications equipment, providing customised network solutions for telecom carriers in fixed, mobile, optical and data communication networks. In the mobile communications field, engineers deploy GSM/GPRS networks that drive businesses to grow constantly and interconnect efficiently with other established GSM networks provided by several world-class telecom vendors in this market.

Leveraging its matured GSM technologies and sizeable expertise derived over the years, Huawei has successfully deployed its competitive GSM systems in over 30 countries which include Russia, Thailand, China, Singapore, Tunisia, etc. Total sales have exceeded 80 000 TRX, NSS: 35 million MSC lines, and 6 million GMSC Digital Trunks.

Our GPRS products have also realised a massive commercial application worldwide especially in China mobile which is the largest mobile operator in China and commands the largest number of mobile subscribers in the world. GPRS, which carries a wide range of applications, brings operators a large number of potentially profitable opportunities. Considering operators` requirements, Huawei offers various customised service solutions like MMS, mobile office, PTT (Push To Talk), WLAN combined with GPRS, Mobile Internet Access (WAP, FTP, e-mail), e-commerce, VPN, LCS and Intelligent Network services. Most notable of all is the network`s IN Proxy function which facilitates the introduction of intelligent services to the existing GPRS network with no upgrade required.

Huawei`s GPRS network deployment has exceeded 6 million lines.