The first call on the EDD band over a live LTE network marks a significant milestone for the introduction of LTE to the European market and underscores Alcatel-Lucent's readiness to provide mobile operators with a commercial solution as soon as regulatory decisions regarding the EDD frequency band are made. For example, a frequency auction including the 800 MHz band is expected to be held in Germany in the second quarter of 2010. The 800 MHz frequency band is particularly well-suited for facilitating wireless broadband internet services in rural areas.
“This is a significant milestone in becoming the first supplier to offer a commercial solution in the Digital Dividend frequency band,” commented Ken Wirth, President of LTE/4G Solutions at Alcatel-Lucent. “Our goal is to support operators quickly and effectively in their plans to improve broadband service availability across all geographic areas. Therefore, we adapted our LTE solution to the 800 MHz frequency band very early on, and we are now working with our customers to conduct field trials.”
The deployment of LTE solutions at 800 MHz offers a clear advantage to operators, as it requires fewer sites to provide coverage in rural areas, thus reducing the overall environmental impact. Deploying LTE systems in the 800 MHz frequency band can be an ideal complement to LTE deployments in the 2.6 GHz band, which require smaller cells, for example, in densely populated urban areas. Alcatel-Lucent has 2.6 GHz LTE networks with live traffic in Stuttgart and Vélizy (France), and its 2.6 GHz radio modules are CE marked, enabling the installation of 2.6 GHz LTE base stations in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Stuttgart's 4G/LTE solutions center
At its headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany, Alcatel-Lucent has established an end-to-end 4G/LTE solutions center. The solutions center comprises a complete end-to-end LTE network, including an on-air radio network, in Stuttgart's northern district. For several months, Alcatel-Lucent has been successfully conducting 4G/LTE mobile service trials in the 2.6 GHz frequency band. In these trials, Alcatel-Lucent achieved very high data transmission speeds, up to 60 Mbit/s in the 10 MHz frequency band, with very low signal latency. These trials included innovative LTE-enabled applications that offer mobile users a feature-rich service comparable to that currently available on fixed networks.
Alcatel-Lucent's position in the LTE sector
Alcatel-Lucent is a leader in LTE, and is actively involved in most LTE projects planned by operators around the world, including trials and commercial deployments with operators such as Verizon Wireless, Telefónica, Etisalat, FT/Orange and NTT DoCoMo.
