NEC wins Telecom Italia Mobile order

date: 15th January 2001

NEC Corp. announced Monday it has won an order from Telecom Italia Mobile (TIM) for equipment used in third-generation (3G) mobile communication networks.

Under the deal, NEC will supply the Italian mobile phone operator with 3G cellular phone communications stations to be used for field trials kicking off this spring.

The value of the order was not disclosed.

NEC has been working together with TIM and Siemens AG of Germany to develop the equipment, and has been conducting trials since March last year.

"With this trial-base order, we hope to position ourselves one step forward from other rivals in a race to get a commercial order from TIM," said Akiko Shikimori, an NEC spokeswoman.

Other leaders in mobile phone infrastructure such as Sweden's Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson are also said to be interested in winning a commercial order from TIM, a leading wireless telecommunications carrier in Europe.

NEC expects to make some 4,000 to 5,000 wireless phone stations in the current fiscal year and projects output at 18,000 stations for fiscal 2001 and 40,000 the following year, the Nihon Keizai daily reported.

The company hopes to sell about 70 percent of output abroad, the report also said.

Shares of NEC jumped 3.1 percent, or 70 yen, to 2,335 yen by early morning Tokyo. 

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