M1 Ltd. (M1) has announced the deployment of South East Asia’s first commercial Long Term Evolution network in Singapore and the awarding of a five year contract, valued at S$280 million to Huawei, to provide the turnkey LTE solution. This will include installation of macro base stations, distributed base stations and Evolved Packet Core (EPC), for M1’s island-wide next generation network.

LTE is capable of delivering downlink speed of up to 300 Mbps and is specifically designed for the efficient carriage of data traffic. The new network will enable rich multimedia applications such as video conferencing, high-definition content transmission, high speed video downloads and social network updates, giving M1 customers an enhanced mobile broadband experience.

"We are building an advanced world class mobile network which will truly enhance the wireless internet experience for our customers, and cater to the increasing demands of future mobile devices and applications,” commented Karen Kooi, CEO, M1 Limited. She added, “With Huawei’s strong global track record and technological expertise, we are confident that this partnership will maintain M1’s technology leadership in the wireless space.”

Huawei’s president of wireless product line, David Wang Tao said, “It is a great privilege for Huawei to be M1’s partner in the deployment of the region’s first commercial LTE network. With our innovative end-to-end solution, Huawei is fully committed to make this network deployment a success.”