China Telecom chooses Alcatel-Lucent PON for Fibre Cities project

China Telecom has selected Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext and NYSE: ALU) to supply PON equipment for its “Broadband China, Fibre Cities” project. The project aims to supply more than 26 million people in unserved and under-served areas of China with new broadband services.

The “Broadband China, Fibre Cities” project will see the deployment of a mix of PON technologies connecting homes, office buildings and remote “nodes.” The nodes will then support fiber-to-the-node (FTTN) delivery of broadband services, wherein the final distribution of broadband signals will use existing copper wires. Alcatel-Lucent will supply its Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM) product family, which includes a mix of GPON, EPON, and DSL technologies.

Wei Leping, Chairman of China Telecom Science & Technology Committee, said, “China Telecom launched ‘Broadband China, Fibre Cities’ strategy at the beginning of 2011, which aims to realize optical network coverage in all the cities in three years. By 2015, China Telecom will achieve an FTTH coverage of 100 million households and 30 million FTTH subscribers. Leveraging Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell’s leading broadband access portfolio and Alcatel-Lucent’s enriched deployment experience for other operators worldwide, we are able to provide the urban users the experience of web surfing at the speed of light.”

Rajeev Singh-Molares, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s activities in the Asia-Pacific Region, said: “This project represents another major milestone in the rapid modernization of China’s telecom landscape, and highlights the deepening relationship between Alcatel-Lucent and China Telecom, one of the worlds’ largest and most dynamic service providers.”

Following the deployment, China Telecom will be able to offer subscribers a range of consumer and business services including IPTV, video on demand, voice over IP (VoIP), and more at speeds of up to 50 Mbps, all with guaranteed quality of service (QoS) levels. This project is part of China Telecom’s plan to extend its FTTH coverage to 100 million users by the end of China’s 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015).