Japanese infrastructure vendor Hitachi Ltd. (NYSE: HIT; Paris: PHA) has trumped Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.'s (Korea: SEC) deal with KDDI Corp. announced yesterday, revealing that it has also secured a CDMA 1xEV-DO (Evolution, Data Only) Revision A network deal with the carrier worth approximately $956 million.

“The total amount is about ¥100 billion,” Hitachi spokesman Masanao Sato tells Unstrung.

“The period of the deal is from end of fiscal year 2005 to fiscal year 2011,” adds Sato in an email. “And Hitachi Ltd’s fiscal year is April to March.”

Hitachi’s win eclipses the earlier $800 million deal with Samsung. Reports suggested Samsung claimed to be the sole supplier of Revision A kit to KDDI (see Samsung Wins KDDI Contract).

Both vendors are a logical choice in light of their status as existing suppliers to KDDI's CDMA network (see KDDI Picks Hitachi CDMA). KDDI was unavailable for comment on the issue at press time, but any additional vendor deals appear unlikely.

Approved by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) Technical Specification Group, Revision A is a radio network upgrade to existing CDMA 1xEV-DO systems that are based on the earlier Release O standard (see 1xEV-DO Revision OK'd).

EV-DO Release O networks support average data rates of 300 kbit/s to 500 kbit/s. The Revision A standard is intended to crank this rate up to a theoretical 3.1 Mbit/s.

KDDI is Japan’s second largest carrier, touting a total customer base of approximately 18 million. The company initially launched EV-DO Release O services in November 2003 (see KDDI 3G Launch WINs).

— Justin Springham, Senior Editor, Europe, Unstrung