Marconi Communications of Coventry has won a new order for SDH (synchronous digital hierarchy) equipment from Dalian UNICOM, the Chinese network operator serving the country's second biggest port of Dalian, to enhance the capacity of its mobile phone network.

The order follows the successful completion last year of a contract to design, build and install a new transmission infrastructure to upgrade the company's regional GSM (Global Satellite for Mobile Telecommunications) services, using Marconi Communications' world-leading SDH technology.

Both contracts have been won through Shanghai GPT, the joint venture company formed between Marconi Communications and the state-owned Shanghai Railway Communications Factory to provide Chinese operators with access to the latest communications equipment, together with comprehensive in-country support services. These include assembly, testing and installation.

Through Shanghai GPT, Marconi Communications is providing Dalian UNICOM with a local SDH network, using its latest Coventry-developed Series 3 family of SMA multiplexers, together with an EM-OS management system, which controls all aspects of the network's operation. The new local network provides high-speed services for GSM users in the area and connects into the national transmission network now being developed throughout China by UNICOM.

Marconi's Coventry-based managing director Mike Parton said:

"Dalian is an extremely important and rapidly growing economic centre. These contracts are significant milestones in our development of both mobile and fixed networks for our Chinese customers."

Marconi Communications last year won a $4.5 million order from the Beijing Telecommunications Administration (BTA), to supply equipment which will link the capital's main telephone system to a new network of GSM mobile stations being built in and around the city.

The company has supplied SDH equipment for many of the country's major network developments, including one of the world's longest SDH optical fibre links, running 3,000 kilometres from Shanghai, through Wuhan to Chongqing.

Marconi's SDH equipment is also being used in several regional and local networks, including those being developed by the Yunnan Electricity Industry Bureau and Dalian UNICOM.

Marconi recently signed a letter of intent with the Chinese Ministry of Railways (MOR), paving the way for a $26 million expansion project in which the company will supply the ministry with the latest transmission and access equipment for eight high-speed communications routes, carrying voice and data traffic over new networks totalling 3900 km (2400 miles).

Marconi Communications is a world leader in smart broadband transmission and network integration. Based in the UK and Italy, it has sales to more than 140 countries and is wholly owned by GEC, a global manufacturer of intelligent electronic systems.

NOTE:

The Chinese GSM market is one of the fastest growing in the world and in 1998 was worth more than US$2.6bn.

MORE INFORMATION:
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