Alcatel-Lucent small cells set new milestone at Mobile World Congress

Dramatically augmenting mobile service experience at home, at work and in public areas, and contributing to achieve lightRadioTM objectives

Paris and Barcelona - Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announces a significant expansion of the breadth and capabilities of its 9360 Small Cells portfolio. At Mobile World Congress, Alcatel-Lucent is launching its 3G small cells approach for indoor and outdoor high-traffic “metro” areas (such as shopping malls, airports, railway stations, etc.) as well as the second generation of its 9362 Enterprise Cell. The company is also unveiling its concept for the 9361 Home Cell X-Series: a sleek, compact range of USB-powered small cells able to deliver high-capacity data and crystal-clear voice for up to eight users simultaneously.

“In the context of the lightRadio™ approach, there is a strong continuum between the deployment of small and macro cells in order to establish converged, IP-based, flexible and smart networks,” says Wim Sweldens, head of Alcatel-Lucent’s Wireless activities. “Our ongoing small cells innovations are crucial to the creation of this new, more powerful mobile network architecture – bringing major coverage, capacity and services benefits to service providers and subscribers alike.”

Increasing network coverage and capacity in public spaces – both indoors and outdoors

Alcatel-Lucent’s 9363 & 9364 Metro Cells extend 3G wireless coverage and capacity to high-traffic public spaces, indoors and outdoors. Alcatel-Lucent’s 9363 & 9364 Metro Cells can function in shopping malls, hotel lobbies or airports, or open up the networking possibilities of bus stops and busy shopping streets - or even more remote, rural locations. Their plug-and-play and self-organizing networks (SON) capabilities - combined with macro-like, real-time management - make for easy deployment and control. Mobile service providers can use Alcatel-Lucent’s 9363 & 9364 Metro Cells to deliver outstanding performance in public spaces of any kind and size, at a lower operational expense.

Alcatel-Lucent’s 9363 & 9364 Metro Cells easily integrate into existing 3G networks. By avoiding the cost and complexity associated with current macro site deployments, metro cells contribute to reduce by up to 50% the total cost of ownership per bit of the mobile access infrastructure. An added advantage is that, using Alcatel-Lucent’s application programming interface (API) innovation, service providers can use small cells to offer new, revenue-generating services based on location and presence. In retail environments, for example, promotional offers could be sent to shoppers as they walk past or browse in particular areas.

Launching the higher-capacity second-generation small cell for enterprise users

Businesses of all sizes need clear reception and low latency – a five star, five bar mobile broadband experience – throughout their buildings. Alcatel-Lucent’s second-generation 9362 Enterprise Cell, providing additional capacity and serving a larger coverage area,eliminates dead zones and revives the “connected office”.

But the 9362 Enterprise Cell is more than just a wireless access point; Alcatel-Lucent’s open API innovation again drives the delivery of innovative, value-added services which boost the efficiency of business communications at a lower cost. Examples include connecting mobile phones to the company’s PBX system, or automatically sharing real-time presence and availability information with other colleagues in the building.

Introducing a miniaturized residential small cell – the 9361 Home Cell X-Series

Alcatel-Lucent sees the future trend towards miniaturized small cells, and the 9361 Home Cell X-Series is a sign of its readiness to meet this oncoming market need. The X-Series devices are powered by a standard USB port, allowing for easy connection to a wide range of Internet-enabled devices such as PCs, TVs, home routers and even game consoles, while delivering high-speed data and crystal-clear voice for up to 8 simultaneous mobile users.

Alcatel-Lucent’s 9360 Small Cells portfolio is displayed at Alcatel-Lucent’s booth (# 6C23 in Hall 6) at the Mobile World Congress ’11 (Barcelona, Spain - February 14th till 17th).



About Alcatel-Lucent’s small cells approach

Alcatel-Lucent is clearly establishing itself as the leading end-to-end Femto/small cells vendor, holding more than 20 trials and 17 commercial deployment agreements. Commercial contracts include the selection of Alcatel-Lucent by Telefonica in Spain, Etisalat and du in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and by Vodafone Group as its preferred vendor for the deployment of a nationwide Femtocell service in the UK.

Alcatel-Lucent is leading in small cells with an unrivalled end-to-end portfolio that includes innovation from Bell Labs such as support systems for customer care and self-organizing networks (SON). Not only does SON empower small cells to automatically configure at power up; it also enables them to periodically monitor, update and optimize their neighbour relation lists and handover parameters – thus reducing handover failures by up to 80%. Using SON technology, Alcatel-Lucent’s small cells also have the capability to continuously adjust transmit power to the surrounding environment - to deliver the best possible coverage. Bell Labs studies have found that its SON features translate in a 20 percent CAPEX savings and 50 percent OPEX savings.


More information: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/wireless/femto_small_cells.html

About Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: 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.