[ET Net News Agency, 27 April 2020] Jefferies Research noted that China Telecom (00728)
(CT) and China Unicom (CU)(00762) released the results of their 5G BTS tender (250K) over
the weekend, with an ASP of roughly Rmb132K, 17.5% lower than what China Mobile
(00941)(CM) achieved for its tender.
The research house thus sees tremendous margin pressure for equipment makers while
telcos' capex will be much less aggressive than expected.
Jefferies added that CT/CU would likely require a part of its 5G BTSes to have higher
power so that they can support 200MHz of contiguous spectrum. These BTSes should be
10%-20% more expensive than CM's BTSes. Jefferies assumed 10% or less, and it does point
to further margin squeeze on this tender. (KL)