This east China metropolis has thus become Alcatel's largest ADSL production base in the world, said sources from Alcatel Shanghai Bell Co. Ltd.

One of the earliest ADSL suppliers in China, Alcatel Shanghai Bell Co. Ltd. entered the Chinese broadband market five years ago.

By late last year, the company had marketed products amounting to 1.6 million ADSL lines, taking 40 percent of the Chinese market.

While heralding ADSL as a showcase of success for his company's localization strategy, Andrew Young, president of Alcatel Shanghai Bell Co. Ltd., predicted an explosive growth in ADSL this year.

Young promised to expand the company's markets in the United States and Europe while also supplying the Chinese market in the new year. He said his company has exported products equivalent to 300,000 ADSL into the United States.

Alcatel Shanghai Bell Co. Ltd., the first overseas-funded shareholding firm in China's telecommunications sector, was founded in early 1994 to transfer Alcatel's GSM (global service for mobile communications) technology to China.

(Xinhua News Agency February 9, 2003)