By Kumar Amitav Chaliha

TMCnet Contributing Writer

More than three million broadband subscribers in China’s Guandong province—regardless of their access to technology—will soon be offered next-generation services, courtesy of Redback Networks.

According to a press release, service provider Guangdong Telecom has decided to deploy Redback’s SmartEdge routers to help expand its broadband network and also to offer advanced services in the province’s three largest cities—Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Dongguan.

By deploying SmartEdge routers, Guangdong Telecom will be able to enlarge its broadband network for next generation data, voice and video.

Service provider Guangdong Telecom, the largest subsidiary of the China Telecom Group, will upgrade its existing Ethernet and xDSL access networks using the SmartEdge routers.

The new routers will make Guangdong Telecom’s services more widely available, and also will help the company reduce operating expenses by merging consumer and business services into a single network.

“SmartEdge routers are designed to simplify a service provider's operations by enabling a converged IP network to deliver video, voice and data services, while providing industry leading reliability and service availability,” Simon Williams, vice president of sales and operations for the Asia Pacific region at Redback, said in the press release.

Williams continued: “Redback has purpose-built the platform to deliver high bandwidth, next generation services, and we are excited to be working with a visionary service provider, such as Guangdong Telecom, to help deliver a new era of triple play services to some of the most advanced broadband markets in China.”

Guangdong Telecom also intends to deploy SmartEdge routers in the future for business-class VPN services using advanced Hierarchical Quality of Service (HQoS) and standards-based MPLS, the press release said.

According to analysts, the use of SmartEdge routers by Guangdong telecom provides an excellent opportunity for the San Jose, Calif.-based company. Guangdong is a fast developing province in China and the numbers of subscribers there are expected to rise at a very fast rate. Also, they say, the opportunity in Guangdong could well lead to other opportunities in the rest of the country.

Redback Networks is a provider of next-generation IP broadband networking equipment for carries and service providers. Its carrier-class SmartEdge router series integrate edge routing, Ethernet aggregation, and subscriber management.

For more information about Redback, visit http://www.redback.com/.

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Kumar Amitav Chaliha is a contributing writer to TMCnet.