Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) and China Unicom, one of the country’s major communications service providers, have announced plans to launch one of the largest fiber broadband access networks to date in China. Alcatel-Lucent has been selected as the largest supplier for China Unicom’s expansion of its broadband access network based on GPON technology in 29 provinces to satisfy growing demand for capacity-intensive applications such as interactive TV, video-on-demand services, gaming, social networking and more.

Currently, an extensive effort is taking place across China to expand the reach of fiber-optic networks to connect millions of households to superfast Internet. Alcatel-Lucent is deploying its Gigabit Passive Optical Networking (GPON) platform – the most advanced FTTx offering in the market - to ensure China Unicom’s network will be able to boost speed and capacity for years to come as subscriber demand requires. China Unicom’s project will be the largest deployment of GPON technology to date worldwide.

With this deployment, China Unicom will be able to offer subscribers speeds of up to 100 Megabits-per-second, all with guaranteed quality of service levels providing great flexibility to a wide range of consumer and business services including IPTV, video on demand, and voice over IP (VoIP).

Rajeev Singh-Molares, President, Asia-Pacific at Alcatel-Lucent said: “This project represents another major milestone in the rapid expansion of broadband in China. It also demonstrates our strong and growing leadership position in the FTTx market as we help accelerate availability of superfast broadband throughout China.”