According to the sole procurement announcement for the 2019 LTE core network (CN) capacity expansion project included in China Telecom mobile network construction, the content of the procurement covers MME, SAE-GW, HSS, PCRF, DRA, CG and other EPC devices required in 31 provinces nationwide.
The sole-source procurement suppliers include: Huawei, ZTE, and Ericsson.
It was learned that in 2017, China Telecom expanded the devices capacity of Huawei, ZTE, and Ericsson concerning the construction of mobile network for the LTE CN project; in 2018, branches of China Telecom in different provinces expanded the capacity of their own LTE CNs. Different from previous situations, the capacity expansion of LTE CN this year is to pave the way for 5G principally.