It looks like the U.S. isn't immune to Huawei's global shake-up of the wireless industry. The Chinese vendor just landed its first deal of note with a U.S. wireless carrier, nailing down a three-market contract for CDMA 1X networks with Leap Wireless.

It's not a huge contract by any means, and signing with Leap certainly isn't a guarantor of success. Ericsson did the same thing several years back and its CDMA division is now defunct. But unlike Ericsson, Huawei has a lot of global momentum. It's leaving a pretty impressive trail of CDMA and UMTS deals in its wake, tempting carriers not only with what appear to be some interesting technology innovations but also some bargain basement prices. It's probably why a Chinese vendor joint venture is what every vendor that isn't Ericsson wants for Christmas. And those tie-ups will only give the Huaweis and ZTEs of the world more momentum, giving them an established customer--as in the case of Motorola--to sell their already intriguing product lines to.

Don't expect these CDMA contracts to get much bigger than Leap though. The Tier 1 providers already have their network builds locked in for years to come with the likes of Lucent Technologies, Nortel Networks and Motorola. The upgrade path for CDMA EV-DO will build on the same CDMA 1X base station architecture and the same core infrastructure, guaranteeing those vendors their share of future 3G contracts. That's the problem with being a nationwide provider--there are no markets to build at least not on any scale. It's with the carriers that are still expanding that Huawei will likely make the most noise. With Leap planning on building a footprint covering 20 million pops by the end of the year, there's a substantial new build opportunity for the upstart.

Also, expect Huawei to be licking its lips over the AWS auction. New spectrum means new networks, and if T-Mobile gains the 3G spectrum it's aiming for, don't be surprised if a Huawei-built/Motorola-deployed UMTS network--at a quarter less the cost of what Cingular just paid--doesn't seem awfully attractive.

Contact me at kfitchard@prismb2b.com