Business

Agere Systems provides new access chip solutions to China's Fiberhome for optical networking

April 10, 2003

10 April 2003 Ascot, UK Lightwave Europe -- Agere Systems has announced that Fiberhome Telecommunications Technologies Co., Ltd., the No. 3 domestic optical network equipment supplier in China, will purchase Agere's MARS Lite access devices.

Agere will provide the new MARS2G5 T LT as well as other MARS devices for Fiberhome's next-generation platform for metropolitan area networking, data and SONET applications. Fiberhome plans to introduce the multiservice networking platform within this year. Agere has begun providing volume quantities of these chips.

MARS LT devices are the latest addition to Agere's MARS family of integrated circuits. The devices are claimed to be the industry's first integrated framer solutions specifically designed for price-sensitive access applications, including DSL access multiplexers, wireless base stations and routers.

Deputy General Manager of FiberHome Transmission Product Division, Mr. Zhu Yu Xia, said, "Agere's broad portfolio, systems-level expertise and competitive pricing is what we needed to meet our requirements quickly and cost-effectively.

"To grow and succeed in this market, we need to provide our customers the best performance and features at the lowest price point. Agere's access and transport solutions dramatically reduced our system development time and costs, while providing the functionality and scalability our customers need as they grow their networks."

According to Gartner Dataquest, the market for SDH transport equipment in China is approximately USD1bn. China continues to present the largest telecommunications market in Asia.

"We are working closely with Fiberhome to support their continued growth as an optical networking equipment provider in China," said Mark Granahan, vice president for access and transport products at Agere Systems.

"This agreement represents another major win for Agere in this growing market. We are continuing to aggressively take share in the SONET/SDH segment with our lowest cost per port solutions, strengthening our leading position as the supplier of choice in the Asia-Pacific region."