Vodafone and Alcatel-Lucent cooperate to deliver 32nd America’s Cup competition live to mobile users in Spain

Vodafone and Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced a cooperation agreement to deliver the award-winning America’s Cup Live Sailing service developed by Alcatel-Lucent in Vodafone’s mobile portal. With momentum building as the final of the Louis Vuitton Cup begins today in Valencia, Vodafone’s mobile customers in Spain can now experience the sailing action with live animations of the 32nd America’s Cup races, and a fully interactive viewing of every race.

With Alcatel-Lucent’s Live Sailing, Vodafone Live! customers will benefit from daily news videos, pictures and textual information from the 32nd America’s Cup. The America’s Cup Live Sailing service, which can be accessed via the Vodafone live! Menu, throughout the Sports section where the 32nd America’s Cup will be promoted during the key dates of the competition.

“With the growing Spanish sailing culture and the 32nd America’s Cup competition taking place in Spain, demand for real-time competition coverage is high and Vodafone is particularly pleased to be able to deliver this innovative information and entertainment service to our mobile subscribers,” said Blanca Echaniz, Vodafone Live! and Data Marketing Director, Vodafone Spain. “With Alcatel-Lucent’s America’s Cup Live Sailing service Vodafone’s mobile subscribers and sailing fans can enjoy all of the excitement of the final round of sailing competition as it happens and at their convenience directly on their mobile device.”

“Alcatel-Lucent’s role as Official New Media Provider for the 32nd America’s Cup has provided us a unique opportunity to showcase innovative new media services, to demonstrate our expertise in content enablement and convergent solutions, and to help customers like Vodafone to use new media content for an enhanced service offering,” stated Marc Rouanne, President of Alcatel-Lucent convergence activities. “Vodafone’s customers are benefiting from the vast research and innovation capabilities behind new media services to enjoy an extremely rich, versatile and easy to use live service that is available everywhere.”

Alcatel-Lucent’s enhanced portfolio of AmericasCupAnywhere new media services provide video and 3D animation and gaming coverage of the 32nd America’s Cup for sailing enthusiasts from more than 150 countries during the 2007 regattas. Highlighting demand for new media coverage of the event, to date more than 250,000 unique users have logged into AmericasCupAnywhere Internet TV to follow this year’s competition.

With more than 900 convergence customers around the world, Alcatel-Lucent is a leading supplier of next generation network technologies and applications that enable the delivery of personalized, blended multimedia services across different networks (mobile, fixed, and enterprise) and devices. The company is committed to creating added value for their customers as they transform their networks, to deliver innovative voice and multimedia communication solutions that are as easy to use as a television or mobile phone.

Vodafone Spain is the Official Mobile Phone Network Operatorfor the 32nd America’s Cup, and has won a variety of awards for its sailing related and other network deployments.