ALLENTOWN, Pa., and SHENZHEN, China -- Agere Systems (NYSE: AGR.A), the world leader in communications components, and Huawei Technologies, a prominent telecommunications equipment and network solutions provider, today announced a multi-million dollar agreement for next-generation optical networking systems. Under the agreement, Huawei will use Agere's network infrastructure products and technologies to build communications systems that will help provide high-speed broadband and Internet access to millions of homes and businesses in China. Huawei will initially use Agere's PayloadPlus(tm) family of programmable network processors and PI (protocol-independent) family of switch fabric products to develop systems for high-performance optical networks running from OC-12 (622 megabits per second) to OC-768 (40 gigabits per second) wire speeds. "Agere's strength as a leading supplier of communications components confirmed our decision to partner with them," said Liu Ping, vice president of Huawei Technologies. "With Agere's technology, we believe we will gain significant time-to-market advantages over our competitors in the global networking marketplace."Agere Systems Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd.