ISLAMABAD, July 2: The National Telecom Corporation (NTC) has signed a Rs100 million contract with a private company to deliver high-speed multi-service data services to its customers.

The contract involves turnkey design, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of a state-of-the-art ATM and DSLAM based data network.

The contract (phase I) was signed by the CEO of TelcoNet Communications & Engineering (Lucent Business Partners in Pakistan), Irfan Ali and Mr Wajahat Suri, Director of Data Networks and Modernization, NTC.

Almost all the equipment and systems in the contract are from Lucent Technologies, USA, with services, integration and value addition provided by a joint team of Lucent and TelcoNet engineers.

The other bidders for the project included Nortel, ZTE, Cisco and Alcatel. TelcoNet was awarded the project on the basis of superior technical design and functionality of its ATM (Lucent PSAX 4500) and DSLAM (STINGER) platforms, which blend together homogeneously in a single hierarchy solution.

The ISP solution and customer premises equipment are from Lucent as well.

Terming the project as the first of its kind not only in Pakistan, but in the whole region, officials in NTC and TelcoNet expressed optimism that the network, expected to be operational by the end of the year, would herald in a new era of telecommunication service provision in Pakistan.

Irfan Ali praised the vision of the NTC Chairman Azhar Maud in taking the initiative in this regard. He pointed out that the Lucent ATM/ DSLAM platform would enable NTC to leap ahead in providing integrated services (voice, internet, intranet, and video) to its clients as the deregulation process in Pakistan gains momentum and the market opens up to competition.

He unveiled Lucent’s plans to utilise the strength of the TelcoNet engineering and project management resource to carry out similar project implementations in other countries of the EEMEA region.