Alcatel-Lucent delivering cloud-based networks for China Mobile and Unicom

Details: James Barton; Category: Wireless Networks; 08 July 2015; 6008 views

Two of China’s largest operators have tapped Alcatel-Lucent for their transition to dynamic cloud-based networks.

China Mobile and China Unicom have signed frame agreements which will see the French vendor support them in the delivery of faster, more affordable mobile and fixed Internet connections across the country, as China strives to meet the ever-growing connectivity of people and ‘things’.

Under the agreements - both spanning a year and valued at up to RMB4.53 billion (€656 million) and RMB3.59 billion (€20 million) for China Mobile and China Unicom respectively - Alcatel-Lucent will deliver its mobile and fixed ultra-broadband access, IP routing, agile optical networking and network functions virtualisation (NFV) capabilities, as well as Nuage Networks’ software defined networking (SDN) technologies.

The deployment of these technologies will also support China Mobile and China Unicom in meeting commitments to the ‘Broadband China’ initiative which aims to see full broadband coverage across the nation’s rural and urban areas by 2020.

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has set the target for all the country’s municipalities, city districts and most non-urban households to have access to 100 megabits-per-second (Mbps) fibre by 2017. Within the same timeframe, China also expects residents of major cities to have an average access rate of 30 Mbps, 80% of administrative villages to have fibre coverage, with full 4G mobile access in urban and rural areas.

Alcatel-Lucent is providing both China Unicom and China Mobile with the latest generation of access technologies on the high capacity ISAM access platform, essential for meeting the country’s ambitious broadband targets.

Li Huidi, Vice President of China Mobile said: “We have been working closely with Alcatel-Lucent on the development of technologies to help the smooth transition to cloud networks. We are pleased to continue this collaboration and under this agreement we can benefit from Alcatel-Lucent’s leading solutions to help us expand connectivity across the company and enable new efficiencies across our network.”

Michel Combes, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent, said: “This announcement is highly significant as it furthers Alcatel-Lucent’s role as a key technology provider in China and aligns perfectly with our strategy of bringing high-speed ultra-broadband access to open up new opportunities for both service providers and their customers alike.”