Ten Internet routers from Avici Systems Inc. will be used by China Telecom as the company begins an upgrade of its core Internet backbone in an industrialized province in the south of China.

Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. won the deal, and is reselling Avici gear as part of a subcontractor arrangement the companies struck last summer. This was the second such deal in the past month for Avici–a consortium of Netherlands universities and research centers purchased Avici routers through a similar arrangement with Nortel Networks Inc.