Telecom network vendor ZTE announced its five-year global framework deal with Telenor Group to supply radio access network (RAN) equipment and services, including 2G, 3G and 4G technologies, to its operations in Europe and Asia.

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As part of the RAN deal, ZTE will supply its software-defined radio (SDR) platform that supports multiple technologies including GSM, Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), LTE FDD and LTE TDD and multiple frequency bands simultaneously.

Dell’Oro Group in a research note in February 2015 said that after two years of growth, the RAN market is expected to decline in 2015 as 4G growth in Europe will not be sufficient to offset near-term pressures in North America and stronger comps in Asia Pacific.

“LTE will be one of the major investment areas for us in the coming years and with ZTE supplying radio access equipment and professional services we will be able to bring affordable good quality mobile broadband experiences to end users, contributing to Telenor’s Internet for All strategy,” said Hilde Tonne, EVP and head of Group Industrial Development, Telenor Group.

The report said the RAN (2G/3G/4G macro & small cell) shares of Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent were impacted by the shift from North America to China. Both vendors lost single-digit percentage points of share in 2014.

Ericsson, Huawei, and Nokia maintained the top three revenue share rankings in LTE, while Huawei, ZTE and Nokia were the top TD-LTE RAN vendors as measured by 2014 revenues.

ZTE has already supplied network solutions to Telenor’s telecom markets including Hungary, Pakistan, Malaysia and Montenegro.

Baburajan K
[email protected]