China Telecom - the First to Offer EPON-based 3G Services

ZTE has announced that China Telecom has deployed its Ethernet Passive Optical Networks (EPON) Solution, which enabled China Telecom to cutover between EPON technology, which carries CDMA 1X services and EVDO data services to implement the world's first EPON technology that offers 3G services.

The announcement is the culmination of the successful trial conducted by Shanghai Telecom, a subsidiary of China Telecom, in February 2009. Early last month, the company finally completed the cutover of the CDMA 1X service and EVDO high-speed data service over EPON and achieved on-site service test results. During nearly one hour of continuous call testing, the voice service demonstrated stable signals, while the EVDO data service functioned smoothly.

ZTE says that its EPON Solution helped Shanghai Telecom address transmission problems between its backend machine rooms and CDMA base stations located in a remote facility. More importantly, Shanghai Telecom was able to reduce overall network construction cost - a key factor in launching its 3G service.

Today's 3G networks generally have more stringent operational requirements including key features such as network clock delay, clock synchronisation and network jitter, resulting in operators facing an enormous challenge to offer 3G services. ZTE's EPON Solution has advanced features that not only address mobile base station backhaul for operations, but also provide unified access for backhaul and broadband services.

"We're pleased to provide Shanghai Telecom with our EPON Solution to help them get revive recognition for being the first operator in the world to run 3G services over EPON. The success of the test indicates that there is a huge opportunity for EPON being widely adopted in different telecom networks such as GSM and TD SCDMA/CDMA. ZTE's EPON technology helps carriers to enhance their All-services operation, along with lower cost to realise the convergence of fixed and mobile networks," said Mr. Xu Ming, Vice President, ZTE Corporation.

China Mobile has adopted EPON technology to carry its GSM services and has been providing the services for more than a year in mainland China.