Alcatel-Lucent Wins Chinese CDMA Contract

Alcatel-Lucent has won a US$320 million CDMA contract from China Telecom to increase the capacity and coverage of its mobile voice and data network throughout the country. The contract was secured through Alcatel Shanghai Bell, Alcatel-Lucent's Chinese subsidiary.

Alcatel Shanghai Bell will provide its end-to-end CDMA wireless networking solutions for China Telecom in 56 cities of 9 provinces in China. The deployment is currently underway and the expanded network will begin providing commercial services by the end of 2008. Alcatel Shanghai Bell also will provide IP service routers and applications platforms and services for the deployment.

"China Telecom is making a bold investment in the country's communications infrastructure to ensure that the people of China have access to some of the most sophisticated and useful mobile services available, such as mobile Web access." said Olivia Qiu, President of Alcatel Shanghai Bell. "This agreement builds on our longstanding collaboration with China Telecom and our commitment to ensure that they have a state-of-the-art network that supports their business goals and strategy. The agreement with China Telecom further confirms Alcatel-Lucent's leading position in the CDMA market in China and worldwide."

For the deployment, Alcatel Shanghai Bell will provide a robust infrastructure incorporating a range of base stations designed to fit a wide variety of deployment scenarios, from those designed to serve usage-heavy urban areas to those suited to providing coverage in more rural areas where populations are more dispersed. These bases stations all use many common hardware and software elements, allowing for easier maintenance and lower operating costs, and can be readily upgraded to support 3G services in the future.

Posted to the site on 2nd December 2008