Eastern promise: ZTE and Mobitel’s USD40m 4G handshake

Chinese technology provider ZTE Corp has signed a strategic cooperation agreement worth USD40 million with Sri Lankan cellular operator Mobitel, under which it will deploy over 700 2G/3G/4G Long Term Evolution (LTE)-ready base stations and transmission equipment for Mobitel’s ‘Stage VII’ mobile network expansion project. Upon completion of the project, Mobitel – a subsidiary of Sri Lanka Telecom – aims to be South Asia’s first commercial provider of FDD-LTE 4G mobile broadband services. ZTE was selected as Mobitel’s major telecoms equipment vendor after the successful completion of its Stage VI network expansion in June 2012, which involved the deployment/upgrade of 2G and 3G base stations at over 1,000 sites.