Nokia announced this week that it has signed a GPRS packet core network expansion contract with Guangdong Mobile Communications Corporation Ltd.. Nokia will provide its intelligent GPRS packet core solution for the 8th GPRS expansion of Guangdong MCC and will thus become the leading GPRS network provider in the province.

Under the contract, Nokia will supply Guangdong MCC with its complete Nokia GPRS packet core solution, consisting of Nokia Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN), Nokia Flexi Intelligent Service Node, and the Nokia Charging Gateway. The solution provides an easy migration path to Nokia Combi SGSN as the 3G access support capability can be achieved with simple memory and interface upgrades. The network will be supported by the multivendor, multitechnology Nokia NetAct network and service management system, including Nokia NetAct Traffica. Nokia will also provide network planning, implementation and integration services.

Deliveries have started and the network will be serving more than 11 million data subscribers in the Eastern Guangdong province, expanded from Shenzhen to include DongGuan and Huizhou, in December 2006.