RIO DE JANEIRO – While Chinese telecom equipment vendors hit a snag this week in the United States with the House Intelligence Committeeadvising American companies not to buy network gear from Huawei or fellow Chinese vendor ZTE, Telefónica announced it has tapped Huawei and Ericsson to supply LTE equipment for its wireless unit Vivo. The announcement was made at this week’s Futurecom event (read all pieces) in Brazil.
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In total, Telefónica plans to deploy 4,700 radio base stations, of which Ericsson will be responsible for 2,700 and Huawei for 2,000 sites.
Vivo said it will use Ericsson to provide LTE solutions across North and Center-West regions, as well as in the states of São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Bahia. Ericsson will also responsible for the network core and the contract also includes the implementation of LTE infrastructure, as well as designing and supporting the network.
Huawei will be in charge of providing infrastructure to the cities of Fortaleza, Recife and Rio de Janeiro, which are also sites of the 2013 Confederations Cup.
Regarding other coverage areas, including South and Northeast regions, , Telefónica Brazil’s CEO Antonio Carlos Valente said carrier was still deciding on which vendor will provide equipment to its South and Northeast regions. “It could be Ericsson, Huawei or any other,” he added.
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