Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced that it has been selected by STC (Saudi Telecom Company), the main telecommunications carrier in Saudi Arabia, to conduct an end-to-end Long Term Evolution (LTE) trial, to begin in the second half of 2010. This trial will enable STC to test the performance of LTE-based services and assess the related business models.
“As a major operator, STC is committed to providing its customers superior service. It is clear to us that LTE has evolved to being more than just a promising technology,” said Dr Zeyad Al-Otaibi, STC's vice president Networks.
“As STC and Alcatel-Lucent are both on the edge of innovation, we are confident that this trial will help us fulfil our customers' needs for innovative mobile broadband services.”
Alcatel-Lucent will be leveraging its industry-leading LTE expertise to provide an end-to-end integrated solution, including LTE base stations (eNodeBs), the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), IP service routing network elements as well as operation, administration and maintenance (OAM) systems. Alcatel-Lucent will also provide a range of professional services, including project management, planning, installation, integration and commissioning, and testing.
“This trial is a major step in the adoption of LTE technology in the Middle East. STC can count on our technical leadership and transformation expertise to unleash LTE's full business potential,” said Amr El Leithy, head of Alcatel-Lucent's activities in Africa and the Middle East. “We consider this agreement to be a strong endorsement of Alcatel-Lucent's innovation and forward-looking strategy in the area of mobile broadband solutions and efficient high-performance IP-based network.”
Alcatel-Lucent's LTE solution and services are leveraged in the majority of LTE projects being pursued by Tier 1 operators around the globe, including in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
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Saudi Telecom
STC (Saudi Telecom) is the leading national telecommunications services provider in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. STC provides four key services: Home services, which include PSTN, broadband DSL; Personal services, which include mobile telephone services and value added services; Enterprise services, which provide advanced business data solutions to enterprises; and Wholesale services that provide network services to other local operators. In the recent years STC grew beyond its local borders and went global forming a network of business and investments in various Gulf countries, Asia, and Africa. The company is present in Kuwait, Bahrain, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, and South Africa, enabling it to provide services to a bigger customer base and increasing its total number of customers externally by studying and evaluating investment opportunities. For more information, visit STC on the Internet: http://www.stc.com.sa/
Alcatel-Lucent and LTE
Having been selected to support more than 40 trials around the globe and securing commercial contracts with two of the largest operators in the world, Alcatel-Lucent is a recognized market leader in LTE. The company is actively engaged in the majority of LTE projects being pursued by tier 1 operators around the globe.
To help operators realize their potential, Alcatel-Lucent is offering a unique, pre-integrated, end-to-end LTE solution and a full set of associated professional services. Alcatel-Lucent's network architecture is based on Alcatel-Lucent unique converged radio access network (RAN) strategy allowing scaling of W-CDMA networks and smooth evolution to LTE. The company also founded the ng Connect Program, a global initiative to drive the development of an open and diverse ecosystem of LTE device manufacturers, content providers and application partners. Through the ng Connect program and with Alcatel-Lucent's end-to-end LTE solution, wireless broadband operators benefit from open innovation, pre-integrated solutions, reduce time to market with LTE-enabled services, and the ability to drive new and non-traditional business models. For more information about Alcatel-Lucent's end-to-end LTE solution, please visit: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/lte.
Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is the trusted transformation partner of service providers, enterprises, strategic industries such as defence, energy, healthcare, transportation, and governments worldwide, providing solutions to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organisation in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenue of Euro 15.2 billion in 2009 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com.
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