China Telecom extends Alca-Lu contract for broadband transformation

China Telecom has awarded a contract to Alcatel-Lucent to further boost its broadband capacity and service capabilities, as work moves up a gear to meet the Chinese government’s ‘Broadband China’ target of delivering high-speed broadband connections to over 250mn households across the country by 2015.

After awarding a contract last month for Alcatel-Lucent to expand its broadband network, China Telecom has now extended the agreement to leverage the company’s IP/MPLS services, networking and backhaul expertise.

This latest agreement will enable China Telecom to offer always-on delivery of high-bandwidth video and data broadband services to millions of customers, and also pave the way for the deployment of 100Gbps Ethernet (100GE) technology for future network upgrade, enabling even faster broadband speeds.

By the end of 2012, the ‘Broadband China’ project will see 35 million new families connected via fibre-to-the-home, 50 per cent of broadband customers experiencing speeds of 4Mbps and above, and 20 million new households with access to fixed broadband.

By 2015, the Chinese government aims to have connected 800 million web users via the project, including 200 million living in rural locations.

China recently recorded the highest number of new broadband subscribers of any country worldwide in the first quarter of this year, with an annual growth of 26.4 million (giving a 19 per cent annual growth rate), according to a new report from the Broadband Forum – more details here.