Ericsson has picked up important supply contracts for fixed broadband access systems with three telecoms operators in China.
China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom are upgrading their networks to provide high-speed broadband and high-definition IPTV services in Anhui, Guangdong, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Hubei, Liaoning, Shandong, Shanghai and Sichuan provinces.
Ericsson is supplying optical fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) networks based on gigabit passive optical network technology.
"These initial rollouts in China, as well as the endorsements from around the world, have demonstrated yet again that cost-effective optical fibre solutions are becoming the leading technology for fixed deployment," said Mats H Olsson, president of Ericsson Greater China.
See: Q5 Interview - Stephen King, Phyworks talks to EW about fibre-to-the-home in the UK
Ericsson is not the only supplier targeting the China FTTH market.
Broadcom has announced a family of Gigabit passive optical network (GPON) integrated access devices for the telecoms market in China.
See: Broadcom eyes fibre-to-the-home market in China
The BCM6800 range of gateway processors are intended to support high definition (HD) video, gaming, wireless and voice over IP (VoIP) supporting fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) and fibre-to-the-node (FTTN) applications.
The GPON specification is based on the ITU G.984 GPON recommendation andf is tailored for the Chinese passive optical networks market.
Two new standards for 10G PON fibre networks will be ratified later this year, XGPON and 10GEPON, both will initially support an asymmetric 10Gbit/s on the downstream and 1.25Gbit/ps on the upstream.
Japan is already looking to make a move to 10GEPON and the world's first 10GEPON demonstrator has already been announced - by a UK company too. The introduction of bendable fibre will also get around another major obstacle to the proliferation of fibre optic lines.