Lucent Technologies today announced that it has signed a $130 million contract with China's Shandong Netcom to deploy Lucent's high capacity Personal Handyphone System in networks serving four cities in Shandong province.

The equipment is expected to be operational in early July. Shandong Netcom, a subsidiary of China Netcom, is expanding its PHS network to Qingdao, Jinan, Weifang and Yantai as part of its Phase VI development project. This contract is the largest single contract awarded to Lucent for its PHS solutions in China, reaffirming the company's leadership position in this market.

The PHS solution from Lucent includes its 5E-XC high-capacity switches for global markets, which enables service providers to quickly add capacity as their business grows, to offer new revenue-generating features to its subscribers, and to evolve their existing 5ESS circuit switched networks to Internet Protocol (IP) networks. The 5E-XC switch is part of Lucent's Accelerate Voice over IP portfolio. Lucent Worldwide Services will provide design, engineering and installation support for the project. Lucent also offers a high-performance value-added PHS system based on softswitch technology, which enables a full array of innovative services including Short Message Service, Hi-Mode, high-speed wireless data, prepaid services, location-based services and Centrex service.

Personal handyphone networks are widely deployed in China, where there is a need for low-cost, limited mobility wireless phone services. Since the initial deployment of Lucent's PHS solutions in September 2001, by Shandong Netcom, the subscriber base of PHS networks in these cities has grown to 1.2 million.