The FINANCIAL — du on December 13 announced its plans to use the Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) innovative small cells technology for making its fixed and mobile converged services offering a reality, the launch of which is scheduled for the end of 2010.
du owns one of the most advanced networks in the Emirates region – consisting of a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) architecture on the fixed side, and an HSDPA+ network on the mobile side. Leveraging its existing fixed and mobile infrastructure assets, du will now deploy Alcatel-Lucent’s small cells technology to help its customers overcome indoor mobile coverage issues.
“Alcatel-Lucent’s expertise enables us to provide our customers with the fastest and highest-quality network connectivity – across fixed and mobile, both indoors and outdoors. Building on Alcatel-Lucent’s Small Cells approach, we can satisfy the increasingly demanding mobile service requirements of our residential and business subscribers – answering their need for crystal-clear voice and high-speed data services, no matter where they are and through any 3G-enabled device,” said Farid Faraidooni, Chief Commercial Officer, du.
“This contract confirms our company’s commitment, trust and partnership with du and results from Alcatel-Lucent’s pioneering role in one of the latest trends in wireless communications – i.e., extending mobile coverage to in-building environments,” said Amr El Leithy, Head of Alcatel-Lucent’s business in the Middle East and Africa. “Building on our worldwide experience in this space, our portfolio of home and enterprise cells will enrich the wireless service experience of du’s customers and help du to better monetize the delivery of today’s and tomorrow’s mobile data applications.”
Alcatel-Lucent will provide its end-to-end Femto-based 9360 Small Cell portfolio – consisting of the 9361 Home Cell, the 9362 Enterprise Cell, the 9366 Small Cell Gateway, and Small Cell Management & Customer Care systems.
Alcatel-Lucent’s small cells automatically come into service without requiring any manual configuration by the end-user. Moreover, du will benefit from the power of Bell Labs’ innovative self-organizing network (SON) innovation, reducing handover failures by as much as 80 percent while bringing important operational efficiency savings.
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