Dutch telecoms group KPN has announced that it has selected Chinese vendor ZTE to supply HSPA+-enabled 3G equipment for the expansion and upgrade of its mobile network infrastructure in both Germany and Belgium. Under the terms of the deal ZTE will support both Germany’s E-Plus Mobilfunk and Belgian cellco BASE in all aspects of their network expansion strategy, increasing download speeds to up to 21.6Mbps. KPN claims that the agreement will allow it significantly accelerate the pace of its 3G network rollouts in both countries, while also allowing it to reduce costs.

According to TeleGeography’s GlobalComms database, BASE was Belgium’s third placed mobile operator in terms of subscribers at end-September 2009, with 3.49 million customers, representing a 28.5% market share. E-Plus Mobilfunk meanwhile had 18.7 million subscribers at that date, giving it 17.3% of the German wireless sector, and putting it in third place, behind T-Mobile Deutschland and Vodafone Germany.

source:telegeography