Alcatel (ALA) has signed a GPRS expansion contract with Shanxi Mobile.

"With the increasing demand for emerging mobile voice and data services, we have to ensure the best solution in place to meet the needs of our customers today and tomorrow, including billing according to the content accessed," said Gao Buwen, General Manager of Shanxi Mobile. "Thanks to Alcatel's state-of-the-art solutions and high-quality services, we can continue satisfying our customers."

Once the project is complete, Alcatel will enable Shanxi Mobile to provide advanced mobile communications services to an additional 6 million subscribers in Shanxi province. The Alcatel solution consists of Alcatel's Evolium intelligent GPRS Gateway Support Node and Evolium Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN).

The iGGSN will benefit Shanxi Mobile by enabling the service provider to charge its subscribers based on the type of content they access and the service value they derive. The SGSN will enable Shanxi Mobile to offer its customer's enhanced mobile voice and data services, such as MMS, web browsing and video streaming.

To date, Alcatel's Evolium solutions have already been installed in 25 Chinese provinces.