Alcatel-Lucent, China Telecom in LTE expansion partnership

Alcatel-Lucent has announced a partnership with China Telecom to roll out the operator’s FDD-LTE services to 40 additional cities across 12 Chinese provinces. The French infrastructure vendor said it is one of three suppliers to have been chosen by the telco, and will provide its LTE mobile ultra-broadband access technology to complete the project.

The agreement, which follows an initial trial deployment in 2013, will involve Alcatel-Lucent’s 9926 eNodeB RAN solutions and services within the first half of 2015. The 9926 eNodeB technology includes a digital baseband unit and radio frequency platform the kit maker claimed will enable better spectrum utilisation. The firm said the solution will simplify deployments and offer more flexibility for operators to adapt to changing market demands.

China Telecom, the third largest operator in the country behind China Mobile and China Unicom, has some 186 million subscribers. Alcatel-Lucent said the operator is responding to an “exploding demand for high performance data and video content” by extending its LTE network.

“This agreement with China Telecom highlights our leadership in LTE mobile ultra-broadband access technology,” Luis Martinez Amago, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell (ASB), said. “Demand for LTE is exploding in China, and with this rollout, we will help China Telecom launch services quickly and enable it to maintain its competitive position, offering its customers the ultra-fast broadband speeds and performance they are demanding.”