As a result, China Unicom will accelerate the delivery of IP-based premium voice, multimedia and VPN services. The network deployment will encompass 65 cities across 13 provinces in China and will be completed by the end of 2007.

The Alcatel-Lucent IP solution, based on its 7750 Service Router, will enable China Unicom to better serve its customers, as it expands its service offerings towards 3G. Alcatel-Lucent’s solution will also support China Unicom’s rapid increase in CDMA subscribers and newly-launched data services on its GPRS network. The solution provides massive scalability and critical Quality of Service features that support ever-growing bandwidth requirements and enable premium service delivery while simultaneously reducing operational complexity.

“Service providers are looking for solutions that provide a differentiating architecture to enable effective delivery of high quality next generation services,” said Gerard Dega, President of Alcatel Shanghai Bell. “With our expertise in deploying state-of-the-art IP solutions, we will help China Unicom to satisfy its customers with the most flexible, scalable and highest quality IP services.”