Lucent Scores Two Major Telecom Deals In China

Lucent Technologies has scored a major deal to expand two Chinese regional telecommunications carriers' Personal Handyphone System (PHS) networks.

Under the parallel contracts with Gansu Telecom and Shandong Netcom, Lucent will expand the carriers' network coverage and capacity and deploy its AnyPath Messaging System for the first time in China. Shandong Netcom will also implement Lucent's IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Solution to support Voice over IP (VoIP) services.

"We are proud to have the opportunity to help meet the needs of these fast-growing customers," Lucent Technologies Vice President Ivan Shen said in a statement. "These agreements highlight the strength of Lucent's switching, PHS and next-generation service offerings."

The Gansu PHS expansion will cover 14 cities and affect 1.7 million subscribers, and will provide 360,000 users in Gansu's capital city of Lanzhou with messaging services based on Lucent's AnyPath system. In Shandong, Lucent will expand Shandong Netcom's PHS network to support 5 million users, as well as implement the AnyPath technology and IMS VoIP solution.