Two
Chinese telecom operators, China Mobile and China Telecom, plan to expand their
broadband services by launching fixed-line broadband and FTTH (Fiber To The Home)
deployment projects, respectively, according to a May 27 Xinhua News report.
China
Mobile awarded both Ericsson and Alcatel-Lucent FTTH contracts last July, and the
company has built three million lines by the first quarter of 2010. China
Mobile aims to deploy six million lines this year in order to strengthen its
fixed-line broadband service, according to the Xinhua report. At the same time,
China Telecom opts to focus on FTTH development. The company is scheduled to build
18 million lines this year, capable of delivering 100Mbps in major cities. With
the deployment of this new network, China Telecom expects to offer 12Mbps
connection speeds to 70% of users across towns and cities by the end of 2010. At
present, PON (Passive Optical Network) and DSL (Digital Subscriber Line) remain
the dominant methods of broadband access in China.