Under these agreements, Nortel Networks will supply Optical Ethernet solutions and multiservice backbone networks that will position China Unicom to address growing demand for data, voice and IP services in these regions, which represent more than 50 percent of China’s gross domestic product and nearly 48 percent (619 million people) of its population.

With nearly 30 years of operating experience in Greater China, Nortel Networks has won contracts estimated to be worth more than US$1.2 billion since the start of 2001 from customers such as China Unicom. Nortel Networks ranked #1 in ATM market share in China in 2000, according to CCID Group. Synergy Research Group ranked Nortel Networks #1 in overall and carrier ATM WAN switches for the first quarter of 2001. Nortel Networks was the leader in providing Optical Internet infrastructure equipment to China in 2000, according to Frost & Sullivan.

Nortel Networks is also investing in China to deliver key next generation networking solutions and its comprehensive R&D facilities in Beijing will play an important role in developing new technologies.

We are working closely with China Unicom to deliver the high-performance Internet to Chinese customers, said Robert Mao, chief executive officer, Nortel Networks China. With deployment of Nortel Networks industry-leading solutions, China Unicom will be positioned to lower network and computing costs, drive higher returns on customer relationships, and increase profitability.

The agreements announced today provide for an Optical Ethernet solution for Jiangsu province, and multiservice ATM backbones for Beijing and for the provinces of Jiangsu, Heilongjiang, Jiangxi, Hunan, Hebei, Anhui, Shandong and Sichuan.

Beijing alone has approximately 14 million people, including more than 10 percent (approximately 2.8 million) of China’s Internet subscribers. In addition to addressing their requirements, China Unicom’s new networks are expected to help meet the communications needs of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Nortel Networks Optical Ethernet solution for Jiangsu province will position China Unicom to deliver potentially revenue-generating services including Gigabit Ethernet Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) with the economics and reliability of optical networks.

Optical Ethernet resolves the major bandwidth bottleneck for businesses and data centers the ‘on ramp’ for LAN access to the service provider network. By eliminating the need for translations between Ethernet and other transport protocols like T1, DS3 and ATM, Optical Ethernet can effectively extend Ethernet local area networks (LANs) beyond an organization’s walls.

Nortel Networks Passport* 8600, a critical element in Nortel Networks Optical Ethernet solution, provides ease-of-use, high performance, reliability and scalability in a single platform. It can be used for service provider metro applications requiring higher performance routing, or for metropolitan area network (MAN) Ethernet switched connectivity. Passport 8600 is designed to provide 99.999 percent uptime, critical in a business environment where downtime can result in loss of competitive advantage, customer loyalty and revenues.

Nortel Networks multiservice backbones will position China Unicom to deliver advanced ATM, frame relay, IP, IP VPNs and other, end-to-end data services on a single, high-capacity platform providing seamless scalability from 40 gigabits-per-second to multi-terabit speeds.

These new multiservice networks will help China Unicom to redefine the cost, reliability, quality and profitability of the Internet for consumers, businesses, public institutions and government agencies in China, Mao said. They are expected to enable lower networking and operating costs; new, high-value broadband services; higher return on customer relationships; accelerated delivery of personalized content; and new business models based on unconstrained bandwidth and a common, transparent IP architecture. These are tangible and significant benefits to any economy.

Nortel Networks backbone solution for China Unicom includes Nortel Networks Passport* 15000, Passport 15000-VSS multiservice carrier switch, Passport 8600 routing switch, Passport 7480 multiservice switches, and Shasta 5000 Broadband Service Node (BSN).

A highly scalable, versatile platform, Passport 15000-VSS is designed to speed new data services like ATM, frame relay and IP VPNs. It can also be optimized to meet the requirements of any one specific site on a network, enabling service providers to ‘grow as they go’ by expanding switch features as requirements for a particular point-of-presence increase or change. Passport 15000-VSS also provides true carrier grade reliability with ‘hitless’ software migration for both static and dynamic ATM connections.

SOURCE: COMPANY PRESS RELEASE