Motorola wins China Telecom network upgrade work

BEIJING, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Motorola (MOT.N) has won a contract to upgrade part of China Telecom's (0728.HK) network for advanced multimedia services, the U.S. telecom gear maker said in a statement on Tuesday.

Motorola will provide CDMA infrastructure in 42 Chinese cities, which would be installed in early 2009, the company said, without giving any price or other details.

It is the second announcement about 3G network upgrade work awarded to a foreign company in recent weeks. Alcatel-Lucent (ALUA.PA) said in early December it had won a $230 million contract from China Telecom to provide CDMA equipment in 56 cities.

Foreign equipment makers are eager to secure such contracts as China will award 3G mobile phone licences by the start of 2009 and the government has said at least $29.2 billion will be invested in 3G next year.

China Mobile (0941.HK) will get a licence for TD-SCDMA, the homegrown 3G standard, China Unicom (0762.HK) will operate a WCDMA system, while China Telecom (0728.HK) will get a licence for CDMA 2000 technology. ($=6.85 yuan) (Reporting by Michael Wei; Editing by Kirby Chien and Keiron Henderson)