(Yicai Global) July 19 -- Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei Technologies has become the largest winner in a bid to provide equipment for a cost-effective low-band fifth-generation wireless network in China.

The Shenzhen-based tech giant will take care of 60 percent of the 700-megahertz spectrum base station project, China Mobile said in a statement yesterday. 

Huawei's bid price was the highest but the Beijing-based mobile operator didn't disclose the total investment. ZTE holds a 30 percent stake in the project, while the trio of Nokia Shanghai Bell, Datang Mobile Communications Equipment, and Ericsson China have about 10 percent.

Centralized procurement to build nearly 480,400 “gold frequency” base stations was kicked off on June 25, 2021, after the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology granted China Broadcasting Network Group the economical spectrum last year. China Mobile inked a framework agreement to partner with the radio and TV network operator last January to build and manage the 700-MHz spectrum that offers wide coverage but lower speed than higher spectrums.

China Mobile said earlier that it plans to buy more than 400,000 5G base stations that use the 700-MHz spectrum by next year. Moreover, it intends to build 120,000 stations with a higher 2.6-gigahertz spectrum this year. 

China has the world’s largest 5G standalone network. The country has built 961,000 5G base stations with some 365 million connected 5G devices, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on July 16. 

Editor: Zhang Yushuo, Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi