China Telecom is going to go full guns with FTTH by installing a network that can handle 18 million lines this year with 100 Mbps capabilities in major cities. Before the end of 2010, China Telecom plans to extend FTTH to 70 percent of users in towns and cities with 12 Mbps speeds.
This aggressive FTTH rollout follows a GPON trial with Alcatel-Lucent and then awarding Ericsson a GPON contract. At the time, the deal was heralded as a sign that China would be the next major GPON market. However, Ethernet PON and DSL remain the dominant broadband access methods in China.
China Telecom is not the only service provider getting lighting up FTTH. Fellow telco China Mobile, which also awarded both Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent FTTH contracts last July, plans to ramp up its broadband network build out and deploy six million lines this year.
For more:
- TeleGeography has this article
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