Electronics group Marconi has secured a £62 million contract with Belgium's national telephone operator.

Together with Benelux-based Tein Telecom, the global giant will update phone networks to meet the rapidly increasing demand for high-speed, high-capacity telecommunications traffic.

Marconi's Synchronous Digital Hierarchy equipment will serve as the basis of Belgacom's transport networks, providing flexible high-bandwidth services to almost ten million customers using fixed lines, mobile phones and the internet.

Peter Brown, Marconi's president for Europe, said: "We outpaced our rivals to win the Belgacom deal with a very competitive bid that incorporated not only a full SDH solution but also a direct servicing agreement."

With 49,000 employees around the world, and achieving sales in more than 100 countries, Marconi's deal in Belgium was announced just weeks after celebrating other telecoms contracts.

These included a deal with BT to build Europe's most advanced all-optical network, plus orders from Telecom Italia and German company Fibernet.