Alcatel-Lucent IP technology powers Fastweb’s WOW FI community as homes are turned into wi-fi hotspots throughout Italy

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is enabling Fastweb, Italy’s largest alternative fixed-line telecommunications provider, to expand the availability of WOW FI, its innovative wi-fi®-based ‘community’ broadband service.

Using Alcatel-Lucent’s IP service routing and Motive® authentication, authorization and accounting technologies, Fastweb is providing its residential customers with ultra-broadband access even when they are travelling, by turning customer’s homes into wi-fi hotspots.

By sharing wireless home networking resources, the WOW FI service enables Fastweb customers ‘roaming’ away from home to access the Internet without either degrading the quality of broadband access within the homes providing the connectivity, or compromising the security of the homeowners’ networks.

Fastweb launched WOW FI with a trial last December in the cities of Monza and Livorno, and is now expanding it to Milan. It will soon be launched in Rome, Florence, Turin, Bologna, Genoa and all the other cities served by Fastweb’s network.

Key Facts:

Quotes:

Mario Mella, Chief Technology Officer at Fastweb, said: “We are committed to providing high-quality and secure ultra-broadband connectivity to our customers. Therefore we are  pleased to be able to work with Alcatel-Lucent and leverage their expertise to help us deliver on such an important project for Italy.”

Roberto Loiola, Senior Vice-President, South and Center Europe at Alcatel-Lucent, said: “Using our IP networking product knowledge and expertise we have created a solution for FastWeb that can easily evolve to offer cloud-based services in the future. Delivering the networks that enable access everywhere and on every device is a priority for us and this innovative project is a perfect example of that work.”

With over 2.17 million customers, Fastweb is a major Italian telecommunications player. The company offers a wide range of fixed network and mobile integrated Internet and telephony services to households and businesses. For the Business, public administration, large enterprise, SME, professional and universities and research groups segment, Fastweb offers advanced telecommunication and ICT services, such as housing, cloud computing, security and unified communication. Since its creation in 1999, the company has focused on innovation and network infrastructure to provide high quality ultra-broadband services. Fastweb has developed a national fibre optic network of 39,600 kilometres, with its infrastructure connected to approx. 50% of the Italian population. At present, FASTWEB passes about 6.2 million homes and businesses with its ultrabroadband network at speeds of up to 100 megabit per second with fibre-to-the-home or fibre-to-the-cabinet technology. Fastweb has announced a new ultra-broadband network expansion plan to be completed by the end of 2016, connecting approx. 7.5 million households and businesses (30% of the population). The Company has been part of the Swisscom Group since September 2007.