Contracts, Network Infrastructure, Asia, China:  Nokia has won a US$170 million GSM/GPRS network expansion deal with China’s Henan Mobile Communications Corporation Ltd. The contract is intended to greatly enhance network capacity and coverage in the Henan province, putting Henan MCC in an extremely competitive position.

Under the agreement, Nokia is providing GSM/GPRS radio and core network equipment, including the Nokia MSC Server System, and an extensive range of services, eg, network planning, optimisation and rollout services. The Nokia MSC Server is a circuit core network architecture for GSM/EDGE and WCDMA 3G. Deliveries have started and the network expansion will be fully operational by the end of the first half of 2006.

Nokia has been Henan MCC's major supplier for every GSM expansion since 1995, is the operator's sole GSM/GPRS core network supplier and is a major supplier of Henan MCC's radio network. Nokia has had over 80 customers for the system, over 30 of which are already in commercial use.

* Henan MCC is a wholly owned subsidiary of China Mobile (HK) Limited. It serves Henan province in central China, with a population of around 100 million, and has 17 million mobile subscribers.