Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) Wednesday announced it has signed a centralized purchasing contract with China Telecom (CHA) to provide and maintain an IP/MPLS backbone across ten provinces.

MAIN FACTS:

- The contract is part of the $700 million framework agreement recently signed between China Telecom and Alcatel-Lucent.

- Alcatel-Lucent will deploy its 7750 Service Router and 7450 Ethernet Service Switch, providing the bandwidth, scale and service awareness required to support the growing market for more personalized, broadband offerings such as IPTV, WebTV, Virtual Private Networks, and 3G/4G mobile.

Company Web site: www.alcatel-lucent.com

- By Paris Bureau, Dow Jones Newswires; +331-4017-1740; geraldine.amiel@dowjones.com