China’s Huawei wins BD telecom deal

Chinese telecoms firm Huawei said on Wednesday it had signed a major contract to supply equipment to Bangladesh’s main mobile phone company that will help in its rural expansion drive.
The Chinese firm would aid Grameenphone, majority controlled by Norway’s Telenor, in expanding its Global System for Mobile (GSM) as it seeks to boost coverage in Bangladesh’s rural areas.
“The Grameenphone contract reflects Huawei’s leading position as a network infrastructure supplier and is expected to help Grameenphone meet growing capacity requirements,” the Chinese company said in a statement.
The statement gave no value for the deal. But a Huawei official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told media the contract was worth more than 500 million dollars over three years.
Grameenphone declined to comment on the size of the deal. The Chinese firm had been brought on board to double the size of Grameenphone network coverage, the Huawei official said. Grameenphone has more than 18 million subscribers.
The contract means Huawei would now supply about 90 Per cent of telecom equipment in Bangladesh, up from 30 percent, the Huawei official said.
Bangladesh’s mobile phone market is one of the world’s fastest growing with about 1.3 million new customers being added every month. The country’s six operators have 40 million mobile phone subscribers with Grameenphone controlling nearly half of the market. It has recently said it would focus its attention on rural areas as part of a massive expansion drive.
Only 30 per cent of the mobile phone subscribers are from rural villages, although 70 per cent of the country’s 144 million live there.