Alcatel-Lucent has won a US$1 billion deal with China Mobile to supply the world’s largest mobile operator (by subscribers) with equipment that includes local 3G standard TD-SCDMA. The contract, secured through the vendor’s China unit, Alcatel Shanghai Bell, covers “mobile core network solutions, wireless network solutions, TD-SCDMA equipment, applications, transmission and IP router equipment and related services.”

The deal comes at a time of major restructuring in the Chinese telecoms market. It has not yet been officially announced which of the three major 3G technologies – W-CDMA, CDMA 2000 1xEV-DO and China’s homegrown TD-SCDMA standard – will be deployed on a national and commercial scale by the country’s three operators (China Mobile, China Netcom and China Telecom). China Mobile is planning to have a TD-SCDMA network up and running in time for the Beijing Olympics in August, following earlier trials in eight cities.