Jane Chen / Shanghai Daily news

Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and Alcatel Shanghai Bell Co Ltd (ASB) have won the bid to supply next-generation network (NGN) equipment to China Network Communications Group Corp.  The result was announced yesterday, today's Sina.com said, citing sources close to the bidding.
The NGN equipment will be used to update the SoftSwitch system which forms the backbone of China Netcom's nationwide long-distance switching centers.
This report refutes a previous one by 21st Century Business Herald that ASB had proclaimed itself as being the sole winner of the bid, the biggest-ever deal in China's telecom sector.
In the 21st Century Business Herald report, ASB said it would be updating China Netcom's trial commercial NGN long-distance telecom networks in 31 provinces and cities, as well as regional NGN networks in two of them. It will help the telecom operator to update its existing fixed-line call networks in Northeastern China's Heilongjiang Province to a trial commercial NGN system and add a new NGN network in Tianjin city equipped with voice and broadband capability.
The 21st Century Business Herald report cited close sources as saying the equipment would be supplied free of charge.  By gaining a foothold in the market, ASB would be more likely to win China Netcom's pending purchase deals for follow-up facilities and services, it noted.
According to Hu Hao, vice president of the ASB solutions and business development department, the backbone update will be completed in some months and the provincial-level networks will be completed in the middle of next year.  Regional network updates will likely take a few years to finish.
NGN-update is very much in-vogue with telecom operators. China Netcom's key rival, China Mobile, had completed the update of its nationwide networks by 2004 and achieved their connection to its Internet Protocol networks.  This year, China Telecom has commenced updating its system.