Europe France : Alcatel-Lucent announced a contract with ANTEL, the leading provider of telecommunications services in Uruguay, to supply and install a wireless network based on UMTS/HSPA (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Service/High Speed Packet Access) technology to provide innovative 3G services.

This advanced mobile network project will enable ANCEL, the mobile phone division of ANTEL, to expand capacity while offering sophisticated next-generation services, including advanced multimedia, mobile broadband and converged services such as video call and streaming, Mobile TV and high-speed mobile Internet access on 3G mobile handsets. ANCEL also will introduce high-speed Internet and mobile data services to business and residential subscribers through USB modems and data cards.

"With Alcatel-Lucent's UMTS/HSPA network that ANCEL will deploy, we will be the first operator in Uruguay to offer broadband access to advanced mobile data services at a very high throughput," said Marcelo Erlich, division manager from ANCEL. "Our mission is to provide to Uruguayan the best communication and we have an expert team working to obtain the best service and quality. Creativity is a key factor to maintain our leadership and now our customers will have the possibility to access to a multimedia device with almost the same capacities offered by a PC. This will be a qualitative change for people and modern society."

"This agreement further proves ANTEL's confidence in our leading-edge technology and our teams. Our long-standing collaboration in broadband access, optical and traditional telephony is now extended to mobile broadband," said Olivier Picard, President of Alcatel-Lucent's Europe and South activities. "This first commercial introduction of 3G UMTS in this region reinforces Alcatel-Lucent's worldwide leadership in mobile broadband and its strong footprint in the Latin American market."

Picard noted that this contract signals another endorsement of our UMTS portfolio strategy through the acquisition of Nortel's 3G UMTS access business and demonstrates Alcatel-Lucent's commitment to help service providers in high-growth economies transform their services, network and business to profitably increase voice and data penetration, and enable mass-market broadband.