JUNE 5, 2007 -- Chunghwa Telecom (CHT), the largest operator in Taiwan, will invest approximately $180 million to construct an island-wide fiber-optic network over a five-year period. Today, the carrier announced that it has selected GE-PON chips and software from Teknovus (search for Teknovus) and Ethernet/MPLS equipment from Alcatel-Lucent (search for Alcatel-Lucent) to significantly expand its subscriber reach and provide better broadband services to homes.
CHT's 'Optical Era Project' aims to bring fiber-optic connections to 2.4 million subscribers by the end of 2010. The carrier says it is on track to reach 500,000 by year-end.
CHT has selected Teknovus' Gigabit-Ethernet passive optical network (search for GE-PON) chipsets and software for the fiber-to-the-home (search for FTTH) deployment. Chunghwa Telecom says it will offer advanced broadband services, including premium video services such as IPTV, along with VoIP and high-speed data services, over this network and confirms that deployments are underway.
Teknovus says its chips and software fulfilled Chunghwa's requirements for strict quality of service (QoS) on 1 x 64 fully loaded PON networks while adhering to low power usage parameters.
"Chunghwa Telecom understands the needs of their subscriber base today, requirements for the future, and Teknovus' ability to provide them with cost-effective, low-power, well-designed chips to meet both," reports Greg Caltabiano, president and CEO of Teknovus. "Taiwan is the leading manufacturer of semiconductors worldwide; our win at Chunghwa demonstrates the strength of our architectural design."
CHT also confirms that it is deploying the Alcatel-Lucent 7450 Ethernet Service Switch (ESS), which provides scalable Ethernet/MPLS aggregation, resulting in high bandwidth for high-speed Internet, video, and voice services. By using the Alcatel-Lucent equipment, CHT can expand its fiber-to-the-building (FTTB) customer coverage and capacity, provide QoS, security policy enforcement for triple-play services, and better Virtual Private Network (VPN) scalability and network reliability to increase revenues from its VPN business, say CHT representatives. Alcatel-Lucent will also provide installation and maintenance support.
"This contract from CHT reinforces our growing success in Taiwan," asserts Roc Jih, president of Alcatel-Lucent's activities in Taiwan. "Alcatel-Lucent's latest telecom solutions will assist CHT in deploying its island-wide FTTB, which will ultimately enrich the daily lives of people in Taiwan with advanced services."
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