SaskTel Names Alcatel-Lucent as Primary Infrastructure Provider for Fiber to the Premises Program

REGINA, Saskatchewan and PARIS, June 23, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- SaskTel, the leading full-service communications provider in Saskatchewan, has selected Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris andNYSE: ALU) as the primary infrastructure provider to help implement SaskTel's recently announced Fiber to the Premises Program. This program expands SaskTel's broadband capacity in anticipation of increased customer demand for advanced services, such as bandwidth-hungry video applications.

SaskTel recently announced it will invest approximately $670 million in a seven-year Next Generation Broadband Access Program from 2011 to 2017. This program consists of a GPON-based Fiber to the Premises (FTTP) deployment and will upgrade the broadband network in the nine largest urban centers in the province.

Based on Alcatel-Lucent's scalable, intelligent and efficient High Leverage Network™ (HLN) architecture, SaskTel will deploy a single, fully converged, end-to-end IP network for its wireless and wireline business and residential services. A High Leverage Network provides a simpler, more integrated architecture that is less costly to operate, maintain and evolve — with much reduced power consumption. The converged network will be built using a range of Alcatel-Lucent next generation wireline, IP and optical products. Once complete, the converged network will allow SaskTel to increase its service footprint while improving operational efficiency, reliability and performance and reduce costs and complexity.

"As evidenced by our 2011 network investment plans, SaskTel is committed to being the best at connecting people to their world by providing the best customer experience through our superior networks, exceptional service, advanced solutions and applications," said Ron Styles, SaskTel President and CEO. "We chose Alcatel-Lucent's High Leverage Network architecture because it enables us to deliver a full range of differentiated services enabled by the latest innovations in wireline broadband access, IP and optical technologies."

SaskTel has also selected the Alcatel-Lucent 5780 Dynamic Services Controller (DSC) as a key service-enabling technology for its converged network. Providing enhanced subscriber management and policy control, the Alcatel-Lucent 5780 DSC puts visibility and control of the entire converged end-to-end network in the hands of the service provider. This will empower SaskTel to create innovative new services quickly while ensuring the network operates efficiently.

"SaskTel has a history of and continues not only to be a leader in innovation, but a longstanding valued customer of Alcatel-Lucent," said Alex Giosa, President of Alcatel-Lucent Canada. "By deploying our complete HLN offering, from access to IP to optical, SaskTel will enjoy increased operational efficiency of an end-to-end solutions architecture while delivering broadband services that make money."

In addition to the 5780 DSC, Alcatel-Lucent's HLN deployment includes Alcatel-Lucent's

• 1830 Photonic Service Switch (PSS) for optimized network flexibility and bandwidth provisioning;
• 7750 Service Router (SR) with Enhanced Subscriber Management (ESM) and IPv6 capability;
• 5620 Service Aware Manager (SAM) for end to end network management including photonic management integration;
• GPON-based 7342 Intelligent Services Access Manager Fiber-to-the-User (ISAM FTTU) to provide ultra high-speed triple-play services (voice, video and data) over a single fiber.

Alcatel-Lucent's HLN solution addresses the dual challenges of simultaneously scaling and managing network capacity to meet increasing bandwidth demand while delivering differentiated, revenue generating services. It achieves this by delivering scalable bandwidth at the lowest cost per bit and by embedding intelligence in the network to enable dynamic service creation and delivery. Supporting the Alcatel-Lucent Application Enablement vision, the HLN architecture collapses multiple complex costly overlay networks into a simpler, fully optimized network that leverages technical innovations, improves operational efficiency and embraces existing environments. For more information, visit http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/hln.  

About SaskTel

Saskatchewan Telecommunications Holding Corporation (SaskTel) is the leading full service communications provider in Saskatchewan, with $1.15 billion in annual revenue and more than 1.4 million customer connections including more than 560,000 wireless accesses, 543,000 wireline network accesses, 225,000 Internet accesses and 83,000 Max™ (TV) subscribers.  SaskTel offers a wide range of communications products and services including competitive voice, data, Internet, entertainment, national security, messaging, cellular, wireless data and directory services. In addition, SaskTel International offers software solutions and project consulting in countries around the world.  In 2009, SaskTel contributed more than $651 million to the Saskatchewan economy through dollars spent with Saskatchewan-based suppliers and sponsorships to non-profit organizations.  SaskTel and its wholly-owned subsidiaries have a workforce of approximately 4,800 employees.

About Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris andNYSE : ALU)

The long-trusted partner of service providers, enterprises, strategic industries and governments around the world, Alcatel-Lucent is a leader in mobile, fixed, IP and Optics technologies, and a pioneer in applications and services. Alcatel-Lucent includes Bell Labs, one of the world's foremost centres of research and innovation in communications technology.

With operations in more than 130 countries and one of the most experienced global services organizations in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with global reach. The Company achieved revenues of Euro 16 billion in 2010 and is incorporated in France and headquartered in Paris.

For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com, read the latest posts on the Alcatel-Lucent blog http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/blog and follow the Company on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alcatel_Lucent.

SOURCE Alcatel-Lucent