Better broadband for China

has signed an agreement with

to upgrade its broadband access network across 26 provinces in

in preparation for providing bundled voice, data and video (triple play) services.

China Telecom will deploy the Alcatel solution in South China's 18 provinces and North China's eight provinces including Guangdong, Shanghai, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Fuzhou, Hei Longjiang and Inner Mongolia.

Alcatel says China Telecom subscribers will have access to a series of high quality broadband services such as very high-speed Internet access, videoconference, IPTV and other multimedia services.

China Telecom will deploy the Alcatel 7302 Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM) which delivers broadband services at around three times the speed of conventional ADSL technology.