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PARIS -(Dow Jones)- Telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) Tuesday unveiled a $230 million contract to upgrade China Telecom Corp.'s (CHA) Code Division Multiple Access mobile phone network, ahead of an expected investment boom from the award of third-generation licenses in China.
Chinese operators are awaiting 3G licenses from the country's government. China Telecom plans to invest 80 billion yuan ($11.62 billion) during the next three years to update its CDMA digital mobile technology network.
"This agreement builds on our long-standing collaboration with China Telecom," said Olivia Qiu, president of Alcatel Shanghai Bell, Alcatel-Lucent's subsidiary in China, which is part owned by the Chinese government.
Alcatel-Lucent said it is supplying a web of base stations to deploy the network across 56 cities in nine Chinese provinces by the end of the year, adding these can be upgraded to support 3G services in the future.
At 1136 GMT, Alcatel-Lucent shares were up 4.5%, or EUR0.07, at EUR1.63, outperforming a 0.8% rise in France's benchmark CAC-40 index.
Alcatel-Lucent, the global leader in the CDMA market, has said it expects its CDMA business to decline at a much lower rate in 2009 than in 2008, helped by Chinese investment. CDMA is under pressure from rival technology standards.
The equipment maker said earlier Tuesday it "is strongly committed to strengthening its position in the mobile market."
New Chief Executive Ben Verwaayen is due to present a strategic review of group activities later this month.
Company Web site: www.alcatel-lucent.com
-By Jethro Mullen, Dow Jones Newswires; +33 1 4017 1738; jethro.mullen@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 02, 2008 07:01 ET (12:01 GMT)

Publié le 02 Décembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones