Lucent Tech Wins "Major" Supply Deal
With China Unicom
BEIJING -- Lucent Technologies Inc. (LU) of the U.S. announced Monday
it has won a "major" contract to supply China's number two national
telecommunications operator equipment for a national data network.
Lucent will sell network switches and network management control software
to China United Telecommunications, or Unicom, the company said in a
news release.
The release didn't specify the value of the deal. A company spokeswoman
contacted in Hong Kong said it was "one of the most significant data
networking contracts for Lucent in the Asia-Pacific region," but also declined
to give the size.
The equipment will be used to build a high-capacity national data network
covering up to 100 Chinese cities, the company said.
The new broadband network will enable China Unicom to offer Internet
Protocol telephone service as well as on-line video and other multimedia
Internet services, it said.
The network will also let China Unicom lease data lines and provide
local-area network line connection services to business customers, the
statement said.
China Unicom was set up to compete with former industry monopoly China
Telecom. But the underdog's efforts to expand have been thwarted by
government regulators, which last year put the legal axe to over $1 billion in
Unicom deals with foreign investors.
Legal wrangling between China Unicom and its partners over divestiture
terms for those deals has delayed an overseas share listing that the company
had originally planned for October.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government set up a third nationwide telecom
company earlier this year. China Netcom Corp. is also building a national
broadband Internet network that it hopes will link the country's 15 largest
cities.
In addition to fledgling data networks, Unicom runs long-distance and mobile
telecommunications services. Its projects include a handful of regional mobile
networks that use Code Division Multiple Access, or CDMA, technology
that Lucent sells under license in China.
Lucent said the equipment and software supplied under its new deal will
allow China Unicom's new network to function as a trunk line for wireless
networks based on both CDMA and the competing GSM, or Global System
for Mobile communications, standard.
The new products are based on the Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM)
and IP data communications protocols, and can also be used to provide
access service for Internet content and service providers, the company said.
-By Jason Dean; 8610 6532-6652; jason.dean@dowjones.com
Briefing Book for: LU |
