China Railcom has chosen technology from Cisco for the second phase expansion of their Internet backbone network, CRNet, Cisco Systems, the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, announced Thursday.

Following the expansion work, CRNet will offer a 10G link connecting Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and 125 other Chinese cities, making it one of the world's largest broadband networks.

CRNet is a high-speed public network, offering a range of integrated services including dial-up and DDN access, as well as value-added services like VPN, VPDN, IP voice, and video conferencing.

Rick Justice, Cisco's Senior Vice President, Worldwide Field Operations, expressed his appreciation of China Railcom's vision in market expansion and network construction. "When this second phase expansion is completed, CRNet will be one of the largest broadband IP networks in the world. I believe it will greatly contribute to the development of China's communications industry and increase the availability of broadband services in the country."

As data services continue to develop in China and become an increasingly necessary tool for both individuals and enterprises, telecom operators are looking to broadband networks to drive growth and revenue.

In 2001, Chinese data subscribers increased by more than 100 percent over the previous year, reaching a total of 33.22 million users. Revenue for these services increased by 31.6 percent, generating over 8.65 billion yuan (US$1.17 billion).

It is estimated that Chinese data subscribers will reach 50 million by 2005 and over 280 million in 2010. The construction of broadband networks like CRNet will eliminate bottlenecks and allow operators to move ahead of subscriber growth.

CRNet's second phase network expansion will deploy Cisco's 12400 Internet Routers. The entire project will be completed by the third quarter of this year. Successful cooperation for the second phase expansion is part of a long-term strategic relationship between Cisco and China Railcom that began with the 1st phase project.

Peng Peng, President of China Railcom, said, "The second phase expansion of CRNet will broaden the company's IP broadband resources and leverage its network integrity. We plan to expand the network to cover more major cities and developed regions to address the demand of railway subscribers. We look to provide high quality services to railway transportation businesses and individual subscribers in urban and rural areas alike."

As an integral part of Cisco's IP+Optical strategy, Cisco 12400 Gigabit Router employs industry-unique distributed architecture, capable of providing IP+Optical network infrastructure and service building block for 10Gb/s IP infrastructure. Cisco 12400 Gigabit Routers adopted in CRNet expansion project can increase the bandwidth between core network and edge network, reduce operational costs, and offer the possibilities of accessing IP content and multi-services via an optical network.

( April 19, 2002)