Enabling “5-star, 5-bar” 3G mobile coverage for residential and business users

Paris and Singapore (Femto Cells Asia), April 4^th, 2011 – Vodafone New Zealand has selected Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) to power its commercial “Sure Signal” service. Building on Alcatel-Lucent’s small cells expertise, Vodafone’s “Sure Signal” is taking 3G network coverage and capacity in New Zealand to the next level – addressing the increasingly demanding mobile voice and data requirements of residential and business users. Alcatel-Lucent’s small cells technology smoothly complements Vodafone New Zealand’s existing macro infrastructure, making it the quickest and most cost-effective way for the service provider to prepare its mobile network for the upcoming data explosion.

“Some of our consumer and business customers have been frustrated in the past when they find they don’t have indoor coverage and that the technical options available to improve their coverage were either too expensive or simply weren’t up to the task,” said Hamish Sansom, Head of Mobile Data, Vodafone NZ. “The introduction of Vodafone Sure Signal using the Alcatel-Lucent femtocell solution means that we can now end the frustration for these customers.  The installation and launch of the solution went very smoothly and we now have ecstatic customers with five bars of coverage where they once had none.”

Following its commercial launch on February 14^th, the “Sure Signal” service has been boosting the 3G mobile signal throughout users’ houses and offices, giving them an unequalled mobile phone signal even in environments where this has typically been a challenge (such as in rural or in-building locations).

“The main driver of small cells adoption today is the delivery of crystal-clear voice services to buildings or areas that used to be ‘blind’ to the macro network. However, both residential and business users are quickly discovering the benefits from the increased mobile data capacity as well,” commented Wim Sweldens, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s Wireless activities. “As demonstrated by Vodafone New Zealand, the deployment of small cells makes perfect sense for service providers wishing to cost-effectively address mobile coverage and capacity challenges. Vodafone New Zealand can count on our full commitment to helping them benefit from the differentiating services and features accommodated by small cells technology.”

Studies by Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs show that – versus classic Pico or DAS solutions – small cells are not only cheaper by more than 60%, but also enable in-building mobile coverage much faster than any other solution available today.

Following on from the successful deployment of its Femto-based 9360 Small Cells portfolio in the United Kingdom, Alcatel-Lucent has now provided Vodafone New Zealand with the same end-to-end approach. This includes the 9361 Home Cell, the 9362 Enterprise Cell, the 9366 Small Cell Gateway, and its best-in-class network management solution which combines the strengths of Alcatel-Lucent’s Wireless Management System, Wireless Provisioning System and the Home Device Manager from its Motive Product Division. The solution is complemented by Alcatel-Lucent’s 7750 Service Router which provides IP routing and Ethernet aggregation. In addition, Alcatel-Lucent is providing a select range of professional services to Vodafone New Zealand which includes project management, consulting, architecture, design and installation.

About Alcatel-Lucent’s small cells approach
Alcatel-Lucent is the leading end-to-end Femto/small cells vendor, holding more than 20 trials and 19 commercial deployment agreements. Commercial contracts include the selection of Alcatel-Lucent by  Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan, Telefonica in Spain, Etisalat and du in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and by Vodafone UK and Vodafone New Zealand as their preferred vendor for the deployment of a nationwide Femtocell service.

Fully in line with Alcatel-Lucent’s recent lightRadio™ announcement, the company sees small cells as a fundamental building block of converged, IP, more flexible and smarter networks. As a matter of fact, small cells and lightRadio™ are part of the same continuum – from very small to very big cells. This continuum is reflected in Alcatel-Lucent’s wireless portfolio innovation strategy.

Alcatel-Lucent’s portfolio of Femto-based small cells leverages numerous Bell Labs innovations such as self-organizing networks (SON). SON empowers small cells to automatically configure at power up; it also enables them to periodically monitor, update and optimize their neighbor relation lists and handover parameters – thus reducing handover failures by up to 80%. Using SON technology, Alcatel-Lucent’s small cells have the capability to continuously adjust transmit power to the surrounding environment – to deliver the best possible coverage. Bell Labs studies have found that its SON feature translates to a 20 percent CAPEX savings and 50 percent OPEX savings.

>> More information: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/wireless/femto_small_cells.html

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