China Unicom Kicks off WLAN Equipment Procurement Tender
August 19, 2010
China Unicom recently launched a nationwide equipment purchase tender for its WLAN (Wireless Local Access Network) projects, which are required an estimated 200,000 units of WLAN equipment, the Sohu IT News reported on August 18. Of the total equipment to be purchased, two thirds of which are APs (Access Points) while the remaining one third of which is ACs (Access Controllers). Meanwhile, another two telecom operators China Telecom and China Mobile, which recently just finished WLAN trial runs in several cities in China, are projected to kick off similar tenders to purchase WLAN equipment sometime in October 2010 as well. Of these three telecom operators, the tender floated by China Mobile is expected to be the largest one, but the amount of equipment to be purchased by the said telecom operator was not yet disclosed. According to the Sohu IT News, three major Chinese telecom operators have begun buying 802.11n equipment. In the WLAN equipment tender launched by China Unicom, 802.11n standard equipment has accounted for approximately 20%.