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Alcatel Scores GSM/GPRS Contracts from Shanxi MobileTMCnet Contributing Editor French technology provider Alcatel announced it scored two contracts from Shanxi Mobile Communication Company Limited (Shanxi MCC) in China to expand the operator's GSM network. The new contract is valued at Euro 24 million (U.S. 29 million). The contracts were won through Alcatel (News - Alert) Shanghai Bell, Alcatel's flagship Chinese company.
The network expansion contract calls for Alcatel to provide and install its Evolium GSM/EDGE systems including Base Stations (BTS), Base Station Controllers (BSC), Transcoder (TC), Multi-BSS Fast Packet Server (MFS) supporting the Packet Control Unit (PCU) functions, and Operation & Maintenance Center for Radio (OMC-R), in seven major cities in Shanxi province, namely Yuncheng, Luliang, Linfeng, Jincheng, Changzhi, Xinzhou and Jinzhong. Alcatel will also provide GSM/GPRS network spares for existing network maintenance. Completion of the projects will extend mobile services to an additional 3 million subscribers in Shanxi.
"We have established stable and long-term relations with Alcatel since 1996. With Alcatel's state-of-the-art solutions, we are confident to meet the rapidly increasing demand of our customers by expanding the network capacity and delivering high-quality mobile services," said Gao Buwen, general manager of Shanxi Mobile in a statement.
Alcatel has been providing mobile communication systems in China since 1993 when it introduced its GSM system in Zhejiang Province.
"We have been a partner of Shanxi Mobile for years and are committed to delivering the best solutions to meet their vigorous technical and financial requirements," added Marc Rouanne, Chief Operating Officer of Alcatel's mobile communications activities.
Alcatel has been making strides in Russia as well. Indeed, the technology provider announced earlier this month that it was tapped by Russian operator Sakhatelecom to deploy a next-generation network (NGN) in the Republic of Sakha, also known as Yakutiya. The project will start in the second quarter of 2006 in the cities of Yakutsk and Mirny, to be completed by the end of the year.
With Alcatel's IP-based system in place, Sakhatelecom will be able to offer services such as NGN, IP-video, including IP Centrex, videoconferencing, virtual private networks and unified messaging, as well as enhanced Internet services in Yakutiya.
Alcatel
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Johanne Torres is contributing editor for TMCnet and Internet Telephony magazine. To see more articles by Johanne Torres, please visit Johanne Torres' columnist page.
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