The deal, to supply Thailand’s CAT Telecom with a national CDMA network, was won with an offer that came in at 46.4% less than the other lowest bid by Ericsson. In the electronic auction, Huwaei bid 7.199bn baht against the guideline price of 13.44bn baht. The downside could be the penal fines that the Chinese vendor will incur if the network does not open on time. CAT Telecom markets its services under the Hutch brand and currently has a network covering Bangkok and 25 central provinces. The operator has around 700,000 subscribers.

UK analysts Ovum described the deal as a wake-up call for equipment makers. Commenting on the auction, Ovum’s research director Jean-Charles Doineau said: "This further confirms Huawei's very aggressive pricing strategy in its international operations, with a primary focus in APAC and Europe in the service provider market". Doineau went on say that the deal highlighted how far Western competitors were from being able to compete with Huawei on price. "If we imagine that this deal sets the standard price for CDMA extension network deals, we would then conclude that the market volume would shrink progressively to half its current value. Considering an investment cycle of 3 years, the conclusion would be that in 3 years from now, the CDMA market will be half what it is now in value. Very bad news for the industry indeed".
Ian Channing