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High performance IP-based network will enable new services for
consumers and businesses
Paris, December 10, 2012 – Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE:
ALU) is to help Bharti Airtel meet rapidly growing demand for mobile broadband
services in its African operations by supplying advanced new IP (Internet
Protocol)-based networking technology to support the delivery of new mobile
broadband data and video services.
Rising smartphone ownership in Africa is driving demand for high-bandwidth
mobile data services such as video calling and online gaming. To satisfy this
demand and meet continued expansion, Alcatel-Lucent will evolve Airtel Africa’s
data transport and mobile backhaul1 networks using its IP/MPLS
(IP/Multiprotocol Label Switching) technology.
This new backbone network will support all mobile broadband services to
Airtel’s 17 affiliates across Africa – serving 60 million customers - as well
as a much more robust interconnection to global networks including the UK. The
single international network will offer a more simple structure to improve
performance, reliability, capacity convergence and interoperable mechanisms for
faster service recovery. The Airtel investment includes a common platform for
Layer 2 and Layer 3 service provisioning to reduce the time of delivering the
variety of service types. The result being faster internet speeds for mobile
and Airtel business solutions, toll quality voice and extension of services
from Airtel, ultimately leading to better customer experience and reduction in
the cost of operations.
Eben Albertyn CTO of Airtel Africa said: “Alcatel-Lucent is helping us to
fully utilize the advantages of IP/MPLS technology to economically and
effectively handle high volumes of a variety of mobile broadband data and video
services. The new network implementation not only provides a substantially
improved quality of service for our current customers, it also does an
excellent job of preparing Airtel Africa for future international expansion
opportunities.”
Daniel Jaeger, Vice-President of Alcatel-Lucent Africa said: “Airtel Africa
IP/MPLS network will carry all the international traffic (voice, internet, IT )
of Airtel in Africa connecting it to the peering point in UK.
Thanks to our best-in-class IP/MPLS mobile backhaul solution, we can help
the seventeen operating companies that comprise Airtel Africa to innovate with
their service offers to meet customers’ needs with an even higher degree of
reliability.”
About Alcatel-Lucent’s solution for Airtel
Alcatel-Lucent’ will supply Airtel with its
7750 Service Router,
7705 Service Aggregation Router (SAR) and
5620 Service Aware Manager. These are the cornerstones of Alcatel-Lucent’s
leading Mobile Backhaul
solution, offering a highly scalable, converged (support for 2G, 3G, and 4G/LTE technologies) and reliable
end-to-end solution deployed by more than 120 operators globally.
EDITORIAL NOTE
1Backhaul is the part of the network that links base stations
– the hubs that connect to a mobile device – with the broader global
communications ‘backbone’ that includes the Internet.
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