Paris, March 22, 2010 - Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced that it has been selected by STC (Saudi Telecom Company), the main telecommunications carrier in Saudi Arabia, to conduct an end-to-end Long Term Evolution (LTE) trial, to begin in the second half of 2010. This trial will enable STC to test the performance of LTE-based services and assess the related business models.
“As a major operator, STC is committed to providing its customers superior service. It is clear to us that LTE has evolved to being more than just a promising technology,” said Dr. Zeyad Al-Otaibi, STC’s vice president Networks . “As STC and Alcatel-Lucent are both on the edge of innovation, we are confident that this trial will help us fulfill our customers’ needs for innovative mobile broadband services.”
Alcatel-Lucent will be leveraging its industry-leading LTE expertise to provide an end-to-end integrated solution including LTE base stations (eNodeBs) , the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), IP service routing network elements as well as operation, administration and maintenance (OAM) systems. Alcatel-Lucent will also provide a range of professional services including project management, planning, installation, integration and commissioning, and testing.
“ This trial is a major step in the adoption of LTE technology in the Middle-East. STC can count on our technical leadership and transformation expertise to unleash LTE’s full business potential,” said Amr El Leithy, head of Alcatel-Lucent’s activities in Africa and the Middle East. “ We consider this agreement to be a strong endorsement of Alcatel-Lucent’s innovation and forward-looking strategy in the area of mobile broadband solutions and efficient high-performance IP-based network.”
Alcatel-Lucent’s LTE solution and services are leveraged in the majority of LTE projects being pursued by Tier 1 operators around the globe, including in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
About Saudi Telecom
STC (Saudi Telecom) is the leading national telecommunications services provider in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. STC provides four key services: Home services which include PSTN, broadband DSL, Personal services which include mobile telephone services and value added services, Enterprise services which provide advanced business data solutions to enterprises and Wholesale services that provide network services to other local operators. In the recent years STC grew beyond its local borders and went global forming a network of business and investments in various Gulf countries, Asia, and Africa. The company is present in Kuwait, Bahrain, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Turkey, and South Africa enabling it to provide services to a bigger customer base and increasing its total number of customers externally by studying and evaluating investment opportunities. For more information, visit STC on the Internet: http://www.stc.com.sa/
