Asia Netcom, a unit of Hong Kong-listed China Netcom Group Corp., plans to install points-of-presence, or PoP, in New Jersey and London, enabling global coverage of its network in these locations.

The installation was scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2005, Asia Netcom said in a statement Wednesday.

The New Jersey PoP will extend Asia Netcom’s International Private Line (IPL) and Multi-Protocol Label Switching-based (MPLS) Internet Protocol Virtual Private Network (VPN) services on the east coast of the United States, while the London PoP will be deployed to support IPL, MPLS, VPN and Asynchronous Transfer Mode services.

“The two new PoPs will complement Asia Netcom’s existing Paris PoP in supporting the global network requirements of our customers,” said Genius Wong, Asia Netcom’s vice president of product and service engineering.

China Netcom is mainland’s second-largest fixed-line operator. Asia Netcom provides city-to-city connectivity and data communications to businesses, telecom carriers and internet service providers.

(Shenzhen Daily January 20, 2005)