Alcatel announced Hubei Telecom, a subsidiary of China Telecom, has selected the Alcatel IP service routing solution to expand and optimize its metropolitan area network for delivery of high-quality IP-based data services in Hubei Province, China. This contract was won through Alcatel Shanghai Bell, Alcatel's flagship Chinese company.

Upon completion of the project in August, Hubei Telecom will be able to deliver multiple services from a single network infrastructure, and with the Quality of Service (QoS) required to meet strict Service Level Agreements. Services include a bundled triple play offering (advanced voice, high-speed Internet and IPTV), high speed Internet access for residential users as well as Layer 2 and 3 virtual private network (VPN) services for enterprises.

Hubei Telecom will deploy the Alcatel 7750 Service Router (SR) in the province's three major cities, Wuhan, Yichang and Huanggang. These cities are seeing a growing demand from consumer and business markets for advanced user-centric broadband services.

"Alcatel's IP solution is gaining traction among operators in China. To date, our IP solution has been deployed in more than 20 provinces in China," said Basil Alwan, president of Alcatel's IP activities. "The Alcatel 7750 SR is unique in its ability to ensure non-stop service delivery that is critical to meeting today's stringent expectations. It also accelerates time to market through rapid service provisioning, ensuring service providers can move quickly to capture new market opportunities."

Today, all major Chinese operators including China Telecom, China Unicom, China Netcom and China Mobile have selected the Alcatel 7750 SR to optimize the delivery of high-performance carrier data, voice and video services. China Telecom alone has selected the solution in 11 major provinces in which it operates including: Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Shanxi, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Hubei, Sichuan and Guizhou.