Lucent wins $120m Asia deals

Lucent Technologies announced today at CommunicAsia four new contract wins worth more than $120m.

The wireless telephone network equipment maker will supply China Telecom, India's Tata Teleservices, Korea's KT and Vietnam Power Telecoms (VP Telecom) with network solutions based on Bell Labs technology, the research arm of Lucent.

According to a statement from Lucent, the bulk of the deals come from China Telecom for more than $80m. Under the contract, five of the Chinese provinces, Fujian, Jiangxi, Jiangsu, Sichuan and Gansu will be upgrading to the new Personal Handyphone System (PHS) networks supplied by Lucent. This upgrade will also enable further support for future development of PHS services.

In the Tata Teleservices' $30m deal, Lucent will provide equipment, software and services to enhance the capacity and coverage of the service provider's CDMA (code division multiple access) networks.

Martin Geh, president of Lucent Technologies Asia Pacific, said: "With Asia's economies showing a return to growth amidst the broader global recovery, the importance of telecommunications infrastructure to economic development is increasingly being recognised."

In the same announcement, Lucent will deploy a commercial wireless network in the northern provinces of Vietnam for VP Telecom and supply a VoIP (voice over internet Protocol) solution to South Korea's KT.

Zen Lee writes for CNETAsia