Etisalat to roll out region’s first LTE network

Barcelona, February 15, 2011

Etisalat today signed an agreement with Alcatel-Lucent for a planned deployment of the Middle East’s first Long Term Evolution (LTE) network in the UAE.

Using Alcatel-Lucent’s market-leading end-to-end solution, Etisalat will deploy the first commercial LTE network in the Middle East within the first quarter of 2011, said a statement.

Mohammad Omran, chairman of Etisalat, commented: “As the region’s leading-edge telecom service provider, this is a significant milestone for our corporation and we are proud to be the Middle East’s first and widest LTE network, thereby fulfilling our promise to continuously deliver superlative  communication experiences to our customers every step of the way.”

“Over the last year we’ve witnessed a 200 per cent growth in data roaming traffic. Due to the smartphone boom in the UAE, as is globally, our customers continue to crave for higher speeds and better connectivity. There is an exploding demand for new technologies and large bandwidth to support and enable the surging data traffic,” said Marwan Zawaydeh, Etisalat.

“We are confident that this advanced next-generation network from Alcatel-Lucent will meet our customers’ needs for innovative mobile broadband services.”

LTE can accommodate multimedia applications such as video conferencing, high definition content transmission and high speed video downloads from social networks, giving Etisalat’s customers unbeatable mobile broadband, the statement said.

Alcatel-Lucent, as the leading partner will provide Etisalat with a complete end-to-end High Leverage Network solution – including LTE base stations (eNodeBs), all-IP wireless Evolved Packet Core (EPC), a converged end-to-end network management solution and a range of professional services including project management, planning, installation, commissioning and integration.

“This is a crucial step towards the adoption of LTE in the Middle East. Alcatel-Lucent’s technical leadership and transformation expertise will help Etisalat unleash LTE’s full business potential and deliver a mobile broadband experience far beyond anything that has been seen before in the region”, said Ben Verwaayen, CEO, Alcatel-Lucent.- TradeArabia News Service

Tags: Etisalat | Telecom | Alcatel-Lucent | LTE |