Lucent Technologies today announced a series of Personal Handyphone System (PHS) contracts with China Telecom that were awarded under the frame agreement announced in January 2004.

The contracts were awarded by five China Telecom subsidiaries–Fujian, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Gansu. The frame agreement was one of a series of agreements with China service providers with total values of more than US$350 million. Under the contracts, Lucent will provide 5E-XC High Capacity Switches, from its Accelerate VoIP Solutions portfolio, to upgrade Lucent-supplied PHS networks in the five provinces to support future development of PHS services.

Personal handyphone systems are popular in China where there is a need for low-cost, limited mobility wireless phone services. The PHS uses a wireless telephone similar to a cordless phone but more sophisticated, providing wireless voice and data services. Backed by Bell Labs innovation, Lucent's personal handyphone systems and terminals have been widely deployed throughout the country, serving more than six million subscribers in more than 10 provinces, including Fujian, Gansu, Jiangsu, Hubei, Sichuan, Jiangxi, Shandong, and Liaoning.

The 5E-XC switch is Lucent's next-generation high-capacity switch and provides significantly improved features and capabilities that enable service providers to evolve their existing 5ESS circuit switched networks to Internet protocol (IP) networks.