China Mobile Corp. is trialing FTTx (fiber-to-the-x) broadband networks in China's eastern Jiangsu Province and southern Guangdong Province, and may begin constructing a national FTTx network in 2009, a company official told Interfax on Nov. 11.

"All operators in China are expected to introduce fixed mobile convergence (FMC) services, but China Mobile is weak in the fixed line side. We've decided to build several high quality FTTx networks to cover all the major cities in the provinces of Jiangsu and Guangdong," the marketing official, who asked not to be named, said.

According to the official, the FTTx networks will be able to provide bandwidth of 1 Gigabits per second (Gbps), and thereby the offering of video applications, such as IPTV (Internet protocol TV) and virtual world games. The networks will be used by China Mobile service centers, and services based on the network will be offered to upscale office buildings and VIP customers with high ARPU (average revenue per user) rates, according to the official.

"China Mobile will employ EPON (ethernet passive optical network) technology with bandwidth of 1 Gbps, the widest mature bandwidth in commercial use at the moment. We want to build a top network to provide users with the best possible experience," the official said, adding that Fiberhome is the main supplier of EPON technology in China.

"Currently, Fiberhome is constructing [China Mobile's] FTTx network in 5 cities in Jiangsu Province," Xiong Zhongzhu, deputy head of Fiberhome's FTTH (fiber to the home, a specific type of FTTx) network division, told Interfax.

China Mobile requires its FTTx networks to be capable of supporting fixed line voice call services by installing time division multiplexing (TDM) technology, a core technology for the country's public switched telephone network (PSTN).

"We need a national fixed line network, and may begin construction of a national FTTx network in 2009. However, the exact date of any large scale rollout will be based on the results of the [Jiangsu and Guangdong network] trials," the China Mobile official said.

Source:INTERFAX-CHINA