Ericsson Lands China Telecom Deal

STOCKHOLM -- Ericsson has been awarded a contract by China Telecom Corporation Limited (China Telecom) for building its next-generation IP backbone network, known as ChinaNet Next Carrying Network (CN2). According to the contract, Ericsson will provide total solutions for China Telecom's entire national core network of CN2 and the major part of its backbone network in the southern and western parts of China.

Under the contract, Ericsson will provide systems integration, supervision and support and training services, and will also provide equipment in partnership with Juniper Networks to China Telecom. Delivery and implementation of the contract will start in the first quarter of 2005, and the CN2 network is expected to run into service by the end of 2005.

"We are very proud to be selected by China Telecom as the provider of the national core network and regional backbone networks for their CN2 deployment," said Mats H. Olsson, President of Ericsson China. "We are honored that our customer trusts that Ericsson has the right and best total solutions and capabilities and can meet the growing demands for speed, reliability and scalability of China Telecom's IP networks. With our solutions and services, we can provide optimal data connections to our customers' customers - regardless of their location."

The completion of this contract will enable China Telecom to offer a wide variety of advanced IP services including Virtual Private Networking (VPN), high-quality IP voice and video streaming. In addition, CN2 will support IPv6 addressing and provide finer control over network traffic routing and quality of service.

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China Telecommunications Corp.