Alcatel (ALA) has been awarded a full-scale, nationwide IP network deployment project by China Mobile and it signed an MOU with Datang Telecom to reinforce Alcatel's commitment to support China's home-grown 3G standard, TD-SCDMA.
The deployment of Alcatel's industry-leading IP routing solution will enable China Mobile to accelerate the delivery of IP-based premium voice and multimedia services to its customers. The project was won through Alcatel Shanghai Bell, Alcatel's Chinese flagship company. In this project, Alcatel will deploy its industry-leading Alcatel 7750 Service Router and Alcatel 5620 Service Aware Manager in 13 densely-populated provinces and municipalities of China including: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Shanxi, Anhui, Gansu, Ningxia, Liaoning, Guizhou, Guangxi, Hunan, Jilin and Hainan.
Alcatel's highly reliable IP-based infrastructure will enable China Mobile to reduce operational complexity while increasing bandwidth. As a result, subscribers will be able to enjoy a range of new services including Voice over IP and multimedia services.
"Service providers are looking for solutions that will simplify operations and provide a differentiating architecture to effectively deliver services," said Gerard Dega, President of Alcatel Shanghai Bell. "By combining our thorough understanding of the Chinese market and expertise in deploying a state-of-the art IP solution, we will help China Mobile to bring the most flexible, scalable and highest quality services to its customers."
Today, all the major Chinese operators including China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom and China Netcom, and spanning 29 provinces of the country, have selected Alcatel's IP solution. Worldwide, Alcatel's IP portfolio has been selected by more than 150 service providers in over 65 countries, including massive, multi-year IP network and service transformation projects at AT&T, BT, Cable & Wireless, and Telstra. According to Synergy Research Group, Alcatel was #2 in the Services Edge Router category in Q3 2006, with 19% market share. Alcatel is involved in more than 40 triple play projects and another 40 network transformation projects worldwide.
The MOU with Databg complements an initial agreement that was concluded between Datang Mobile and Alcatel Shanghai Bell in November 2004.
According to the MOU, Alcatel and Datang Group will work closely together to drive TD-SCDMA development. Specifically, the MOU reinforces the cooperation that currently exists between the two companies in the areas of sales, marketing, industrialization, research and development of TD-SCDMA products and technologies for the domestic China market. Alcatel will assist the Datang Group abroad and support this global effort by taking advantage of its worldwide presence in over 130 countries. Finally, the MOU includes joint development of LTE (Long Term Evolution) products and technologies.
The signature of this MOU is a demonstration of the confidence both companies place in the future of TD-SCDMA and of their intention to become leading providers of TD-SCDMA when 3G arrives in China and well-positioned to capture a number of market opportunities.
In November 2004, Alcatel and Datang Mobile, a subsidiary of Datang Group, signed an agreement to invest in the industrialization of TD-SCDMA in China. In April 2005, Alcatel Shanghai Bell and Datang jointly demonstrated a live end-to-end TD-SCDMA solution during the TD-SCDMA International Summit in Beijing. In August 2005, the two companies finished the TD-SCDMA industrialization and announced readiness for large-scale commercial deployment. In March 2006, Alcatel Shanghai Bell and Datang jointly established a TD-SCDMA lab to provide a real network environment dedicated to interoperability testing between GSM and TD-SCDMA applications.
