Alcatel-Lucent provided end to end interactive mobile TV solution to Optimus for Euro 2008 mobile TV coverage and live music concerts in Portugal

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE:ALU) today announce that it provided Optimus, the mobile operator owned by the Portuguese Sonaecom group, with two turnkey end-to-end interactive mobile TV solutions, which enabled Optimus to offer extensive mobile TV coverage of Euro 2008 --the UEFA European Football Championship series-- and live coverage of local concerts.

For Euro 2008, Optimus implemented the “Euro per 1 Euro” campaign, consisting of mobile TV coverage for Euro 2008 matches at the price of one Euro. Subscribers to this service received transmissions of live matches in either enhanced definition (250kbit/s) or regular profile (115kbit/s) and also automatic SMS alerts of UEFA-published videos, including near-real-time event-based videos of key plays, goals, penalties, game highlights, and player profiles.

For “Euro per 1 Euro”, Alcatel-Lucent provided an upgraded streaming architecture capable of handling a capacity up to 5 times more than the previous one. In many occasions, such as each time the Portuguese team played, the platform managed around 500 concurrent video streams and handled more than 25,000 streaming sessions on those days.

For the Live@Optimus campaign, a set of live music concerts promoted by Optimus in several cities in Portugal; Alcatel-Lucent provided a portable mobile TV encoder capability enabling the service provider to offer its subscribers live concert coverage on their mobile phones. Alcatel-Lucent enabled Optimus to be the first Portuguese mobile operator offering live music concerts via mobile TV. So far, 14 concerts in 3 cities have been transmitted.

With this key technical partnership, Optimus offered its end-users a first-class and innovative mobile TV experience, leveraging Alcatel-Lucent’s leading edge encoding and streaming technology delivering superior video and audio quality optimized for mobile handsets, key features such as rich-media players with smart navigation, build-in channel subscription options, fast channel zapping and electronic program guide (EPG). This set of innovative functionalities places Optimus as one worldwide leader in this market.

“The proven leadership in highly developed interactive mobile TV applications clearly confirms Alcatel-Lucent as a key partner for mobile multimedia solutions. With Alcatel-Lucent as key technical partner, we guaranteed an unmatched mobile audience for this year’s Euro Cup and we were able to be the first operator in the Portuguese market to release a Mobile TV channel composed by Live local concerts,” said Manuel Eanes, Sonaecom Central Marketing Director.

“It’s becoming clearer that users are increasingly interested in personalised content when they are on the move, and they want to watch TV at a time that suits them. OPTIMUS knows this and responds to its clients with immediate, rich and perfectly timed offers that empower the user’s experience,” said Pierre Barnabé, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s activities in France, Iberia & Italy. “With the technological advanced Mobile TV solution and the expertise of the local Alcatel-Lucent team, Optimus could rely on a distinctive and innovative service and position itself as the first operator in Portugal to offer anEnhanced Definition Mobile TV service.”