Paris, France and Doha, Qatar, December 7, 2010 – Vodafone Qatar and Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced at a joint press conference the deployment of 17 radio base stations designed to blend into the urban environment. Furthermore they performed the first live demonstration of the LTE technology in Qatar.
Design for environment
Camouflage sites are located in Qatar’s main cities and help reduce visual pollution by better integrating radio base stations into the city’s skyline. These new base stations mimic the cities’ towering and graceful minarets, making them virtually undetectable and enhancing the overall look of the cities and protecting the views of their gardens, places of worship and tourist sites while improving cell phone coverage in these densely populated areas. This initiative is in line with the urban planning and development of the country and is fully supported by the telecom regulator and the government of Qatar. Further camouflage sites are planned in sensitive areas such as The Pearl Qatar, parks and mosques.
“Since the entry of Vodafone in Qatar, we’ve worked hard with Alcatel-Lucent and the local authorities to bring innovation to this country’s telecommunications capabilities,” said Jenny Howe, Vodafone Qatar CTO. “Camouflage solutions are enabling us to get access to sensitive areas and allow Vodafone to better serve its customers, ultimately making a world of difference for all people in Qatar.”
Alcatel-Lucent is providing Vodafone Qatar with a full end-to-end turnkey solution including monopole tower, the camouflage solution, 2G and 3G equipment, microwave equipment, civil works and a set of comprehensive services, including design, dimensioning, site engineering, integration, installation and commissioning, and network operation.
As part of Vodafone Qatar’s green technology program in 2011, they also target the deployment of additional hybrid powered Base Stations in rural areas to harness solar and wind energy.
“A few months ago we launched the first hybrid solution for Vodafone Qatar, and now we are enabling Vodafone Qatar to deploy further cost-efficient solutions that meet today’s environmental challenges. This achievement strengthens our long-standing cooperation with Vodafone and highlights their confidence in our comprehensive solutions and local support capabilities,” said Marc Kassis, Head of Alcatel-Lucent in Qatar. “We are committed to leveraging this leadership to help our customers transform their networks cost-effectively in order to help them better meet the needs of their customers while deploying more energy sustainable networks.”
Demonstrating innovation with LTE
Today’s joint press event has also been an opportunity for Vodafone Qatar and Alcatel-Lucent to showcase advanced mobile capabilities through Alcatel-Lucent’s end-to-end LTE solution. This live LTE demo – the first in Qatar – is using 800 MHz spectrum and demonstrates a speed increase of up to 6 times that enjoyed by customers on 3G today, narrowing the gap between fixed and mobile experience. LTE capabilities include a variety of new multimedia applications and services such as streaming video, HD video conference, heavy files transfers, e-health applications.
“We would like to thank ictQatar for supporting our joint initiative with Alcatel-Lucent to demonstrate LTE at 800 MHz. This live demonstration provides a glimpse into the potential and benefits of LTE and is in line with Vodafone’s focus on innovation.” said Stelios Savvides, Vodafone Qatar, Mobile Access Manager.
About Vodafone Qatar Q.S.C.
Vodafone Qatar Q.S.C. (“Vodafone Qatar”) is the holder of the second public mobile telecommunications networks and services license in the State of Qatar granted on 29 June 2008. Vodafone Qatar’s mission is to “Make A World of Difference for All People in Qatar” by aiming to become “the most admired brand in Qatar.” Please visit www.vodafone.com.qa for more details.
About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is the trusted transformation partner of service providers, enterprises, strategic industries such as defense, energy, healthcare, transportation, and governments worldwide, providing solutions to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP and optics technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organization in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 15.2 billion in 2009 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com, read the latest posts on the Alcatel-Lucent blog http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/blog and follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alcatel_Lucent.
