AlcaLu Cements PON Position in China

With the Chinese government committed to a fiber-based broadband market, Alcatel-Lucent is reaping the benefits of major FTTx investments

July 21, 2010

2 Min Read
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Exactly a year after announcing a GPON deal with China Mobile Ltd. (NYSE: CHL), Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) has gone one better by unveiling new FTTH access equipment deals with both China Mobile and China Telecom Corp. Ltd. (NYSE: CHA). (See AlcaLu Wins PON Deals in China.)

Last year's deal involved GPON deployments in 10 cities in two provinces. (See AlcaLu Lands GPON, 3G Deals in China.)

This time, the vendor is supplying its 7342 Intelligent Services Access Manager Fiber-to-the-User (ISAM FTTU) platform (plus customer premises equipment and professional services) to China Mobile in 14 provinces, and to China Telecom in 18 provinces. (China has 22 provinces in total.)

The deployments are part of China's efforts (in which the country's network operators are involved) to promote fast broadband access, using fiber access wherever possible.

According to a new report from Pyramid Research , "China: With the Industry Restructure Completed, the Real Battle Begins," China's operators expect to invest $22 billion during the next three years in fiber-based broadband access, a commitment that, according to Pyramid's team, should result in China becoming Asia/Pacific's largest fiber access broadband market by the end of next year, when it's expected to have nearly 26 million active lines.

That growth, along with the ongoing rollout of new-generation DSL technology, will also help boost demand for IPTV, including the provision of high-definition services. Pyramid expects IPTV customer numbers to grow to more than 38 million by 2015 from fewer than 8 million now, though cable TV will still dominate China's pay-TV market.AlcaLu isn't the only vendor set to benefit from the focus on high-speed fixed access, as Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC), Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. , and ZTE Corp. (Shenzhen: 000063; Hong Kong: 0763) are also landing fiber access deals in China. (See ZTE Wins China Telecom PON Deal, BBWF: ZTE Touts 10G EPON Trials, and Ericsson Scores GPON Wins in China.)

— Ray Le Maistre, International Managing Editor, Light Reading

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