Last week, Lucent Technologies announced it had signed contracts worth US$14 million with China Unicom to build high-capacity optical networks in China.

"With the high speed, high capacity networks we are providing, China Unicom will be able to transmit a half million, one-page e-mails per second. This level of capability supports China Unicom's determination to have the most advanced and reliable communications technology available to its customers," said Lin Chihung, president of Lucent's optical networking group in China.

The projects will cover eight provincial backbone networks including Jilin, Hebei, Henan, Zhejiang, Hunan, Hubei, Hainan and Guangxi, which will be linked with Unicom's national backbone.

The optical networking systems equipment for the projects, which are scheduled to be operational by the end of this year, will be shipped and delivered for installation and testing by the middle of October.

Under the terms of the contracts, Lucent will provide China Unicom with its WaveStar ADM 16/1. The WaveStar ADM 16/1 is an optical multiplexer that enables carriers to use Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) technology to set up network rings, operating at speeds up to 2.5 gigabits per second, for interoffice and access applications.

Lucent also will provide China Unicom with optical amplifiers and its ITM/SC network management software.

In addition to its products, Lucent will provide complete services that include site survey, installation supervision, testing, trial run, preliminary acceptance and final acceptance.

These projects mark the first entry of Lucent's optical products into Unicom's provincial backbone network markets and represent some of the largest projects Lucent has ever won at the Unicom provincial branch level.

Earlier this year, Lucent won phase one and phase two of China Unicom's national backbone project. The contract value of these two phases was approximately US$50 million.

In June 5, Lucent and China Unicom signed a Strategic Technology Partnership Agreement with China Unicom to address opportunities in the market for next-generation networking. Under the agreement, Lucent will become China Unicom's preferred vendor.

China Unicom is the second largest telecommunications service provider in the country and serves approximately 10 million customers throughout China.

The two companies will work together to develop cutting-edge next generation networking solutions in areas that include optical, network management, data, wireless, billing systems, e-commerce, order management, fiber optics and switching.

In the past five years, Lucent has provided a large number of SDH 2.5G systems for the national, provincial and municipal backbones in China, which serve as the major transmission engines.

(China Daily 09/29/2000)