BEIJING, Nov. 12 -- Nortel Networks has been awarded contracts valued at about $18 million to provide optical long haul backbone networks for China Mobile, the largest mobile operator in the People's Republic of China.
China Mobile, which already serves approximately 100 million mobile wireless subscribers, plans to use the increased speed and capacity that these new optical backbones will provide to address growing demand for high-speed mobile Internet services and electronic commerce applications.
Nortel Networks has 30 years of experience operating in Greater China and has contracts estimated to be worth more than $1.2 billion since the start of 2001 from customers such as China Mobile. The company said it is also investing in China to deliver key next-generation networking solutions, and its research and development facilities in Beijing are expected to play an important role in developing new technologies.