Strengthening its position in what will be the largest networking market outside the U.S., Cisco Systems has signed an agreement with the Guangxi Post and Telecommunications Administration (GXPTA), one of China’s largest telecommunications service providers, to build an IP over ATM network in China.
According to Cisco, the new equipment, a mix of Cisco’s latest BPX(R) 8600 Series ATM edge switches and state-of-the-art Cisco IOS(R) network management software, will enable GXPTA to offer their customers a host of voice, video and data services across a single telecommunications link.
“The rapid pace of China’s telecommunications development has allowed the
country to leapfrog many of the intermediate stages that other more ‘advanced’
markets have faced,” said Duh Jiabin, managing director at Cisco China.
“The Chinese telecom professionals are intensely aware of the benefits of the new
technologies such as multiservice IP+ATM,” added Duh, “and are committed to rapidly
implementing these technologies into a variety of new service offerings for
their customer base.”
Cisco’s BPX solutions are standards-based ATM switches that support broadband, IP, and broadband/narrowband service delivery and are designed to provide carrier-class network backbones for service provider environments.
“We are delighted to be partners with Cisco in developing our network,” said
Lin MianYue, chief engineer of GXPTA. “It will enable us to achieve substantial
operational savings compared to the traditional circuit-switched network
architecture.”
GXPTA is one of China Telecom’s largest
revenue generators with approximately US$350 million in annual sales and more than 20,000 employees, .
Currently, the state-run organization offers various services to their customers, including
traditional fixed line voice services, GSM cellular connectivity as well as
digital data networking and Digital Microwave.
“As one of the first Post and Telecommunications Administration’s (PTA) in
China to move towards a packet data architecture, Guangxi PTA is on the leading edge of today’s revolution in packet switching,” said Julie Tiao, director of Cisco’s service provider division.
“We believe their new network strategy will be extremely cost efficient and look forward to assisting the organizations with its transition from circuit to packet switching,” added Tiao.
