NEC Corp and Siemens AG have won more than 15 contracts from European mobile phone operators for supplying third-generation wireless equipment since their tie-up in 1999, an NEC spokeswoman said.
The contracts include a tran-saction with Hutchison 3G UK Ltd in which NEC was the prime contractor, said NEC's Akiko Shikimori.
The remaining contracts include operators in Portugal and Germany in which Siemens was signed up as a prime contractor and also ones that NEC and Siemens handled as joint contractors, she said.
NEC hopes to triple sales of its equipment for wireless technology for high-speed data transmission at a time when many European operators are weighed down by debt incurred because of huge sums paid to buy licenses to run the faster services. NEC's sales target in the year ending next March is between ?150 billion (US$1.2 billion) and ?160 billion, up from ?50 billionn last year.
"We are working hard by cooperating with Siemens," Shikimori said. But "we can't be optimistic" given the market condition, she said.
The Asian Wall Street Journal earlier said that NEC and Siemens will provide so-called 3G wireless equipment to 18 European mobile-phone companies. The paper cited Yoshiaki Ureshi, assistant general manager at NEC's international wireless group.
In Asia, NEC is offering 3G equipment in China, South Korea, Thailand and Singapore, she said.
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