Nanjing Ericsson Panda Communications Company Ltd., Ericsson's largest joint venture in China, will provide the hardware and software for the expansion. Ericsson (China) Technology Services Co. Ltd. will provide the professional services.

Under the contract, Ericsson will provide GSM switching and radio components. The expansion will help Hebei Mobile to expand network capacity and network coverage to better meet market demand in Hebei province.  

In addition, Ericsson's TEMS Automatic system, the world leading mobile network testing tool, will enable Hebei Mobile to run 7X24-hour non-stop monitoring of its network operation to ensure optimum service quality to end users.

"Hebei Mobile has once again cast their confidence in Ericsson as their valuable strategic partner that has over the years provided in-demand technology solutions and services to meet their business needs," said Jan Malm, president of Ericsson in China. "We will continue to spare no effort to support our customers as they make their choices in going forward to 3G mobile communications."

Ericsson provided Hebei province's first mobile communications system, an analog TACS system, in 1989 and introduced GSM in the province in 1995. In 2001, GPRS and IN (Intelligent Network) features were deployed, and a contract was signed for Ericsson to provide its carrier-class Packet Backbone Network, including IP backbone routers and metropolitan area network solutions.