Chunghwa expands FTTB with Alca-Lu

Alcatel-Lucent has announced in a press release that it has been contracted by Chunghwa Telecom (CHT), the largest telecoms service provider in Taiwan, to provide Ethernet/MPLS solutions for its nationwide fibre-to-the-building (FTTB) network expansion project. CHT’s Optical Era Project involves an investment of approximately USD1.8 billion to construct an island-wide fibre-optic network over five years. By 2010 it aims to provide direct fibre access to 2.4 million residential and business subscribers. Alcatel-Lucent will supply CHT with its 7450 Ethernet Service Switch (ESS), which enables high bandwidth, high speed internet, video and voice services. The expansion will equip CHT with higher network capacity and offer FTTB subscribers data transfer at download speeds of 10Mbps, 50Mbps and 100Mbps for services including IPTV and virtual private networks (VPNs).