France's Alcatel-Lucent yesterday signed a 750 million euro deal with China's two major cell phone operators to help fuel the rapid expansion of the country's mobile network.

The French telecom equipment provider will provide network equipment worth 600 million euros to China Mobile and 150 million worth to the smaller rival China Unicom.

The deal encompasses GPRS and EDGE networking equipment as well as products and solutions to be used in the trial network of China's own third generation standard TD-SCDMA.

President Hu Jintao and Sarkozy took part in deal. Both deals to China Mobile and China Unicom were made through Alcatel Shanghai Bell (ASB), a joint venture between Alcatel and the former Shanghai Bell.

"Alcatel-Lucent has experienced a significant year in China with an increased market share in both the fixed and mobile market sector," Frederic Rose, president of Alcatel-Lucent's business in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific and president of Alcatel Shanghai Bell, said.

"By the end of this year, Alcatel Shanghai Bell will become one of the top two telecom vendors in China."

Since last year, the Chinese cell phone operators have upgraded their existing mobile network to make it sustainable for a larger user base and faster data transfer speed, in the lead up to the Olympic Games.

China Mobile has been upgrading its GPRS network to EDGE since the end of last year and planned to spend 40 billion yuan on equipment and services before 2008, according to Shen Zixin, an analyst from Pday Research, a Beijing-based research firm.

(China Daily November 27, 2007)