China Unicom has contracted NSN to roll out a 40Gbps DWDM network, days after China Telecom handed a fiber rollout deal to Alcatel-Lucent.
NSN said it will deploy a network spanning some 5,000km for the operator, with the aim of increasing data speeds for Unicom subscribers ten-fold.
The contract covers network implementation and maintenance, as well as the supply of a network management system.
The vendor added that the rollout will pave the way for 100Gbps upgrades across the provinces of Chongqing, Hubei, Anhui, Jiangsu, Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi.
NSN and Juniper Networks have been collaborating on interoperable commercial 100G transmission products.
The contract comes days after China Telecom contracted Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell to for a fiber rollout, with a goal of passing 100 million households by 2015.
China Telecom intends to deploy optical networks across all of China's cities by 2015.