Marconi Communications of Coventry, the telecommunications arm of GEC, has strengthened its position in the Middle East and the United Kingdom with orders from the GTO (General Telecommunications Organisation) in the Sultanate of Oman and from Cable and Wireless Communications.

A $19m optical fibre network linking the cities of Firq and Salalah means that Marconi now supplies its Coventry-manufactured SDH (synchronous digital hierarchy) to all the Gulf States, while a major $32m upgrade to more than 30 System X exchanges run by Cable and Wireless Communications will improve the UK operator's backbone network.

In Oman, Marconi will build and install the network as a turnkey project with its local partner, the Abu Ham Group. There is also an option to extend the network throughout the country.

"The first phase of the network will give Oman the core infrastructure it needs to create a sophisticated, high speed telecoms system serving business and private users in the main centres of population,"

said Andrew Povey Coventry-based, Marconi Communications' regional business director.

"By choosing to adopt SDH technology, Oman will benefit from a highly efficient and resilient system that can be built upon to meet their voice and data needs well into the next century. Installing a national SDH network will give them access to international and domestic services that are a match for anything in the world.

"We are particularly pleased and honoured to have won this contract in Oman, as we are now supplying SDH technology to all of the Gulf States. This strengthens our number one position in the region."

The Cable and Wireless Communications contract will see its System X exchanges upgraded to the latest Vistra specification, giving a 40% performance increase. In addition to upgrading and integrating its switching capabilities, Cable and Wireless Communications has signed a two year contract for Marconi to support the whole of the System X and SDH facilities supplied to it by Marconi.

Marconi Communications is a world leader in smart broadband transmission and network integration. It was formed by the merger of GPT Limited, Marconi SpA, GEC Hong Kong and other businesses wholly owned by GEC, a global manufacturer of intelligent electronic systems.