Next Generation Communications Blog

Wireless

ALU Enables Blackberry Launch in Vietnam

Viettel, a leading mobile operator in Vietnam, Alcatel-Lucent and Research In Motion announced the launch of the BlackBerry wireless solution in Vietnam.

 

Under the terms of this agreement, Alcatel-Lucent will provide integration services, leveraging its strong local presence in the region to provide Viettel with end-to-end implementation, launch, delivery and support services for the BlackBerry solution in the Vietnamese market.

 

Alcatel-Lucent's participation thus enables Viettel to focus on the delivery of customer facing services in order to quickly meet market demand.

ALU In TD-SCDMA Pact With China Mobile

Alcatel-Lucent, through its Chinese flagship company Alcatel Shanghai Bell, has won a significant contract for a TD-SCDMA mobile network trial in China   Together with Datang Mobile, Alcatel Lucent announced that they were awarded the largest share in China Mobile's tender for the second phase of its trial to address the growing demand in China for broadband Internet access services on mobile devices.   The deployment of China Mobile's phase II TD-SCDMA network will cover 28 cities across the nation. Under the agreement Alcatel-Lucent and Datang Mobile will provide the TD-SCDMA solution for 11 of the 28 cities, including Nanjing, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Changchun, Hefei, Guiyang, Kunming, Xi'an, Lanzhou, Yinchuan and Urumqi.   Upon the project's completion in June of 2009, the subscribers in these 11 cities will be able to enjoy a full range of multimedia services including ring back tones, multimedia messaging service and more.

ALU Wins Femtocell Deal From Chunghwa Telecom

A recent ABI Research study posited that although femtocells hold tremendous promise for carriers, 2008 would pass as a fairly low-key year for femtocell vendors, with only "about 100,000 units" expected to ship in this year. 2009 will bear more fruit and 2010 will be the year when the market moves to double-digit millions in volume.   Well Alcatel-Lucent is doing their part to move the deployment numbers in the right direction, announcing a femtocell contract from Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan's largest telecommunications provider, to deploy the first femtocell network in Taiwan, which is designed to enhance the coverage of Chunghwa Telecom's mobile network inside homes and offices.   Alcatel-Lucent will supply the operator with a comprehensive end-to-end solution including its Base Station Router (BSR) Femto -- which incorporates 3G W-CDMA radio access and core network elements into a single unit. The deployment will also include service routers and Home Device Manager from Motive, now part of Alcatel-Lucent's portfolio.  

Base Stations' Affect on Backhaul

Writing in his latest The Middle Mile column today, titled Bigger Isn't Always Better, Dr. Alan Solheim addresses a number of issues critical to those looking to deploy base stations, touching upon various constraints such as reach, available spectrum, and teledensity and how they affect the operator's choice in selecting the appropriate solution for deployment at the base station.   As Solheim writes:   The discussion surrounding base station size (Macro, Micro, Pico or Femto) is certainly subject to ... confusing barrage of information and misinformation.   The need to continue to adapt one's product lines to track the changing requirements has never been more apparent. Those who cannot bring themselves to cannibalize their existing products with new offerings or who cling to traditional, TDM based technologies will be left behind in this rapidly evolving new world.   Make sure to check out the article here.

Telecom New Zealand Chooses Alcatel-Lucent for IP MPLS

When faced with the need to accommodate the need to backhaul traffic from its cellular W-CDMA and High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) traffic, Telecom new Zealand turned to Alcatel-Lucent and its IP Multi-Protocol Label Switching (IP/MPLS)-based mobile backhaul solution.
The solution features ALU's pseudowire technology, which is designed to adapts various traffic and media types from the W-CDMA base stations into IP/MPLS. Telecom New Zealand sees this as a benefit for future-proofing their solution, as they transition to a W-CDMA and HSPA deployment. By deploying ALU's solution, the backhaul network will have the flexibility and cost-effective scalability needed to support strong traffic growth and will allow the operator to scale and rapidly roll out innovative mobile broadband services.   According to the release:   Alcatel-Lucent's pseudowire solution includes the 7705 Service Aggregation Router (SAR) which is deployed in cellular base station sites to consolidate and aggregate traffic. The Alcatel-Lucent 7705 SAR allows service providers to scale traffic and simultaneously flatten their cost-curves for leased bandwidth, therefore improving their competitiveness. The 7705 SAR inherits its software architecture from the widely deployed IP/MPLS Service Router product line, retaining and building on its qualities but at a price and form factor appropriate to the cell site and hubs.  

ALU Expands China Telecom Network

Years ago, people looked to areas like China and India as so-called greenfield opportunities. These were places unencumbered by legacy telephony systems, with growing demand and a chance to deploy next-generation communications technologies to address the needs of the region, rather than rely on aging copper wires, crumbling infrastructure etc....   Today we learned that China Telecom, China's leading telecom operator, has selected Alcatel-Lucent to provide an end-to-end solution for the carrier to increase its capacity and coverage of its mobile voice and data network throughout the country.   Valued at $230 million (US) the contract calls for CDMA wireless networking solutions to be deployed in 56 cities of 9 provinces in China. The deployment is currently underway and the expanded network will begin providing commercial services by the end of 2008.   The deployment will comprise a range of base stations designed to fit a variety of scenarios, from usage-heavy urban areas to rural areas where population is scarce.   According to the announcement, the base stations can be readily upgraded to support 3G services in the future.

Laptop Guardian Security Solution Goes Global

In order for all the exciting next-generation communications services to be widely adopted by corporate users, certain conditions must be in place, among them ubiquity and security. Not only do business users need access to their applications everywhere and anywhere, the access they crave must be secure.   Earlier this week, Alcatel-Lucent announced global availability of a high-speed packet access (HSPA) version of its OmniAccess 3500 Nonstop Laptop Guardian (OA3500 NLG).   This solution is designed to protect and recover stolen laptops and data, and was previously available only on CDMA-based 3G networks. (TMC's Rich Tehrani wrote here about the earlier model, which is offered by Sprint on its CDMA network in the US.)   Furthermore, in a recent survey of 255 executive level IT, security and compliance decision makers in the U.S. and Germany, it turns out that 76 percent of respondents believe it is necessary to protect a lost or stolen laptop with more than encryption alone - such as having the ability to locate the device using GPS and remotely revoking access to data.   And in a finding that should serve as a warning to complacent mobile operators everywhere, 50 percent of companies said they would switch to an operator that offers a security solution that protects lost or stolen laptops used remotely, provides auto virtual private network capabilities, and allows IT to manage laptops even when they're turned off.   For more details on Alcatel-Lucent's OmniAccess 3500 Nonstop Laptop Guardian solution, check out the Web site.   SingTel of Singapore, Magyar Telekom of Hungary, and broadband carrier IIJ (Internet Initiative Japan Inc.) of Japan all unveiled plans to offer the device on their networks.  

Wireless Growth News

A newly released report from Informa Telecoms & Media indicates that 2007-2008 witnessed significant growth in the prepaid mobile services market.   At the end of last year, there were nearly 2.33 billion prepaid subscriptions worldwide, of which two percent of subscriptions accounted for prepaid WCDMA accesses.   According to the research, by 2013 there will be approximately 3.93 billion prepaid subscriptions, generating concomitant revenues of over $382 billion.   The consultancy predicts that from 2007-2013, growth might slow down to a global compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of just over nine percent; Still, the prepaid market will account for over eighty percent of new mobile subscriptions.   It's expected that the key drivers of future growth of the prepaid mobile services market will be very-low-income customers in developing markets.     In other next-generation wireless news, Alcatel-Lucent today announced a €22 million deal with South African mobile operator Vodacom SA to upgrade its existing 3G network.   The goal is to boost the capacity and coverage of Vodacom's network so that the wireless carrier can offer its customers a wide range of advanced next-generation mobile broadband services.   The 3G wireless network will be based on Alcatel-Lucent UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) and HSDPA/HSUPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access/High Speed Uplink Packet Access) technologies.    
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