Nokia Siemens Networks Chief Operating Officer Mika Vehvilainen confirmed on Tuesday that the company may be interested in buying some assets of Nortel Networks Corp. (NT.T) after a possible breakup of the Canadian telecommunications equipment maker.

Speaking to reporters, Vehvilainen said Nokia Siemens Networks isn't interested in buying Nortel as a whole, but added "my understanding, also, is that Nortel is potentially breaking up, and if there are any opportunities there, who knows, we may consider it."

"We of course are always exploring opportunities, and the North American market is one of the markets where we'd like to be in a stronger position," he said.

Vehvilainen declined to elaborate on what parts of Nortel the company may be interested in.

In April, The Wall Street Journal reported that Nokia Siemens had made an unsolicited offer for large parts of Nortel's profitable carrier networks unit, citing people familiar with the matter.

Nortel, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January, is moving quickly to sell its major assets while under protection from creditors.

Nokia Siemens Networks, a joint venture between Nokia Corp. (NOK) of Finland and Germany's Siemens AG (SI), is moving aggressively to court carriers in the U.S., where Nortel has a large installed base.

 
   Dissatisfied with Share of China 3G market

Vehvilainen said that Nokia Siemens aims to increase its share of third-generation mobile phone equipment bought by China's telecommunications carriers.

In particular, Vehvilainen said the company is not satisfied with its current share of purchases of TD-SCDMA equipment, the homegrown 3G network standard operated by China Mobile Ltd. (CHL), which he said is under 10%.

Nokia Siemens also hopes to increase its share of WCDMA equipment by China Unicom Ltd. (CHU), Vehvilainen said.

Nokia Siemens is deploying China Unicom's 3G network in 11 out of 33 Chinese provinces, he said, implying that they have around a 33% market share.

He declined to give market share targets for either carrier.

Nokia Siemens does not sell equipment for a third 3G standard called CDMA2000, and thus is not supplying any equipment to China's third telecommunications company, China Telecom Corp. (CHA).

Makers of telecommunications equipment are scrambling for a piece of the China market, where local carriers are expected to spend $59 billion over the next three years on their third-generation mobile networks.

Nokia Siemens Networks took 6.8% of the Chinese market for 3G equipment in 2008 by unit sales, according to a study by research firm iSuppli. The market was dominated by local vendors ZTE Corp. and Huawei Technologies Co., with 29.1% and 22.0%, respectively.

Nokia Siemens Networks said in February that it signed agreements to provide EUR880 million of mobile equipment to China Mobile Communications Corp., the parent of China Mobile Ltd. (CHL) and China United Telecommunications Corp., the parent of China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd.

-By Aaron Back, Dow Jones Newswires; (8610) 6588-5848; aaron.back@dowjones.com