Maxis and Alcatel-Lucent partner to deploy first 100G core transmission network in Asia Pacific

Maxis customers get the best of fixed and mobile internet with higher network efficiency, protection and traffic optimisation

Kuala Lumpur – Maxis Berhad, the country’s leading integrated communications service provider, with Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext and NYSE: ALU) as a strategic supplier, has undertaken a major transformation of Maxis’ core transmission network. By deploying Alcatel-Lucent’s 100 gigabit per second (100G) optical coherent network solution, Maxis is able to cope with increased data traffic, simplify its network, and reduce costs while providing higher efficiency and robustness. This allows Maxis customers to continue to enjoy superior fixed and mobile internet service. Maxis’ optical backbone network is the first 100G single carrier with optical coherent technology system commercially deployed in Asia-Pacific.

Maxis operates its optical fibre network, covering over 10,000 km of fibre infrastructure, within Peninsular Malaysia with part of the fibre infrastructure delivered through collaborative sharing and swapping.

Leveraging on Alcatel-Lucent’s 100G optical coherent network solution, Maxis will be able to address the growing bandwidth requirements and data usage driven by smartphones, tablets, modems and fiber-to-the-premises services, whilst also providing high-speed connectivity and automatic restoration capabilities to enterprises for their data centres and services such as cloud computing and machine-to-machine communications (M2M). Furthermore, the new optical network will enable Maxis to provision services faster and shorten the time to market for new services requiring higher capacities and reliability.

“Maxis’ growth and track record have been supported by a strong commitment to bringing innovation, and transforming our architecture to address the challenges of capacity, network protection and quick provisioning,” said Mark Dioguardi, Maxis’ Chief Technology Officer. “The deployment of this optical network solution transforms our core transmission network; much like upgrading from a normal trunk road to a super highway, allowing users to enjoy faster and seamless high capacity connectivity within Peninsular Malaysia.”

“Maxis remains committed to providing our customers with the best in network experience. We currently have the largest and fastest combined high speed fixed and wireless footprint to service the growing demand for data and broadband services across the country and we were also the first service provider to surpass 5,000 3G sites across East and West Malaysia, enabling the delivery of high-speed wireless broadband and mobile data capabilities to over 80% of the Malaysian population. Additionally,Maxis was the first to conduct trials for Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology successfully,” Mark added.

Commenting on the partnership with Maxis, Rajeev Singh-Molares, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s activities in Asia-Pacific, said, “Our 100G optical solution gives Maxis a new architecture that will drastically reduce its cost of reliably transporting high volumes of traffic while providing a powerful platform to launch and support innovative new services.”

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About Maxis Berhad

Maxis Berhad with its consolidated subsidiaries (together, ‘Maxis’) is the leading integrated communications service provider in Malaysia with 14.1 million mobile subscriptions as of 31 March 2011. Since 1995, Maxis’ Malaysian business has been providing a full suite of communication services on multiple platforms to satisfy the needs of individual consumers, small and medium enterprises, and large corporations in Malaysia.

Maxis has pioneered and led the Malaysian market in providing innovative mobile products and services. It was the first to launch 3G services, Maxis3G, in March 2005. In September 2006 it was among the world’s first to use HSDPA, a high-speed upgrade of the 3G network. In December 2009 it was first to introduce to Malaysia, HSPA+, the latest advancement in 3G/HSPA network capabilities, to further enhance its wireless broadband services.

Maxis is a leading regional content player with 42.1% of non-voice revenue as part of mobile revenue and with over 50% or 7.8 million of its customer base being active mobile internet users. It continually explores global and local best partnerships with partners such as Western Union and PayPal to bring the latest relevant content first to customers. Maxis actively builds a local content ecosystem with partners to forward the Malaysian content industry.

It was also the first telecommunication service provider to bring the BlackBerry™ and Apple iPhone™ smart phones to Malaysia. The company in April 2009 unveiled the first-in-the world commercial near field communication service, which enables customers to use their phones for wave and pay transactions.

Maxis’ growth and strong track record of enabling innovation, excellent customer experience and value to stakeholders have won the company numerous awards over the years which include Asia’s Best Employer Award 2010 from Singapore’s Employer Branding Institute. Maxis was nominated as Best Mobile Operator in 2010’s World Communication Awards for leadership in service innovation.

Maxis’ vision is to bring advanced communications services to enrich its customers’ lives and businesses, in a manner that is simple and personalised, by efficiently and creatively harnessing leading edge technology, and delivering a brand of service experience that is reliable and enchanting.

Maxis has also been active in carrying out Corporate Responsibility programmes to serve the communities. Since 2002 Maxis has been dedicated to working in unison with the Ministry of Information Communications and Culture Malaysia (‘KPKK’) and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (‘SKMM’) on the Bridging Communities corporate responsibility programme to increase Malaysian access to the digital platform.

For more information, please visit: external linkmaxis.com.my

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: external linkhttp://twitter.com/Alcatel_Lucent.