Spain's Telefonica grants ZTE large WiMAX contract

Although details are sketchy, Spain's Telefonica has awarded a contract to ZTE to build a WiMAX network. The contract value, while not disclosed, is said to be the largest won by ZTE from a European operator.

Telefonica's Iberbanda will operate the network and comes after the Spanish operator had selected Israel's Alvarion in May to expand its WiMAX network in Catalonia. This latest award to ZTE does not make clear when or where the deployment will take place, or if it involves cooperation with Alvarion. 

ZTE is also one of the equipment vendors selected by Telefonica for its LTE trials in six European countries.

In October, Clearwire announced plans to offer mobile WiMAX services in the Spanish cities of Malaga and Seville starting next year. The company said it would be using WiMAX 802.16e infrastructure equipment from Alvarion and ZTE in the 3.5GHz band to offer high-speed mobile broadband services under the Clear brand.

For more:
- see this Telegeography article [1]

Related articles:
Clearwire comes to Spain with mobile WiMAX [2]
UK WiMAX operator granted mobile extension to license [3]
Alca-Lu calls time on Austrian WiMAX operator [4]
Telecom Italia and Aria plan WiMAX deployment [5]