Lucent Technologies (LU) has been awarded Personal Handyphone System (PHS) network expansion contracts by Gansu Telecom and Shandong Netcom, provincial subsidiaries of China Telecom and China Netcom, respectively.
These deployments will enable both customers to expand the capacity and coverage of their networks substantially, and introduce a variety of next-generation services such as multimedia messaging, high-speed wireless Internet access and location-based services to their subscribers.
These agreements mark the first deployments of Lucent's AnyPath Messaging System in China. Additionally, the agreement with Shandong Netcom incorporates key elements of Lucent's IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) Solution–part of Lucent's Accelerate(TM) Next-Generation Communications Solutions portfolio–to support Voice over IP (VoIP) services for large and medium sized enterprises.
In Gansu province, Lucent was awarded a PHS expansion contract covering 14 cities, which is expected to support 1.7 million subscribers by the end of the deployment. Additionally, Lucent's AnyPath Messaging System will be deployed to provide messaging services for up to 360,000 subscribers in Lanzhou, the provincial capital of Gansu. This will help Gansu Telecom improve network performance by increasing call termination rates and reducing network congestion, particularly during busy hours, which will help enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.
In Shandong province, Lucent was awarded a contract to support Shandong Netcom's Phase 7 PHS expansion project, which will enable the operator to serve about 5 million subscribers and provide new services and improved service quality for existing subscribers, helping improve customer retention. The AnyPath Messaging System will be deployed to provide messaging services for up to 300,000 subscribers in Qingdao. Lucent's VoIP solution will enable Shandong Netcom to support cost-effective, integrated IP solutions to its business customers.
Lucent Worldwide Services, Lucent's services arm, will provide installation and maintenance services for the deployments.