Alcatel-Lucent Successfully Makes First 4G LTE Calls With Telefonica in Latin America

MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS, BARCELONA, February 15, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris andNYSE: ALU) today announced that it has successfully made the first 4G calls in the framework of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) lab tests Telefonica is conducting in Latin America.

With these tests, Telefonica is analysing - in a real environment - the maturity and benefits of the LTE mobile broadband technology. The first services were delivered in Telefonica's labs, using Alcatel-Lucent's end-to-end LTE solution, including base stations, transmission equipment, Evolved Packet Core (EPC), as well as professional design & integration services - in combination with devices from LG Electronics.

In a second phase when the field tests will start, the 700 MHz and 2.6 GHz frequencies will be used to assess LTE's performance in terms of coverage and capacity - offering a new user experience and supporting the delivery of new mobile multimedia applications, such as high-definition video streaming, mobile gaming, high-speed file transfers and video conferencing.

"LTE deployments bring a user experience and quality of service far superior to the current 3G/3.5G networks," says Ken Wirth, president of LTE/4G Solutions for Alcatel-Lucent. "In addition, they accommodate lower costs of ownership thanks to LTE's advanced quality of service (QoS) and technical features such as self-organising networks (SON) that will be analyzed by Telefonica as well."

About Alcatel-Lucent and LTE

With 40 LTE customer trials secured to date, Alcatel-Lucent is a worldwide 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 (http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/wps/portal/newsreleases/detail?LMSG_CABINET= Docs_and_Resource_Ctr&LMSG_CONTENT_FILE=News_Releases_2010/News_Article_ 001934.xml&lu_lang_code=en) (RAN) strategy allowing scaling of W-CDMA networks and smooth evolution to LTE. The company also founded the ng Connect Program (http://www.ngconnect.org/about-us/index.htm), 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

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About Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris andNYSE: ALU) is the trusted transformation partner of service providers, enterprises, strategic industries such as defense, 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 organization in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues 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

SOURCE Alcatel-Lucent