Bechtel has awarded a $25 million subcontract to Lucent Technologies to carry out emergency repair and rehabilitation of the communications network in Iraq. Under the contract, Lucent will provide 13 5ESS and 5ESS Very Compact Digital Exchange (VCDX) central office switches, the Lucent Metropolis ADM Multiservice Mux, and its Navis Network management system. Deployment will begin next month.
Prior to the war, approximately 1.1 million Iraqis subscribed to the Iraqi Telephone and Post Company (ITPC) for landline telephone service. Much of the communications network was centralized in Baghdad. Currently in Baghdad, 240,000 out of 540,000 telephone lines are out of service. Bechtel estimates that as much as 80% of the actual deployment work for restoring these lines will be done by Iraqi workers and engineers. Lucent will also help establish a training program to facilitate the installation and maintenance of its equipment.
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