Alcatel-Lucent rapidly accelerates development of small cell solutions for the office and home
- Multi-Standard Enterprise Small Cells in customer trials and on-track for commercial release in early 2015 with plans to develop LTE-based residential solution
LAS VEGAS, Sept. 8, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Super Mobility Week 2014 -- Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) has announced today that it will introduce its breakthrough new Enterprise Small Cell device at the beginning of 2015. In collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. (QTI), a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, Alcatel-Lucent is developing a small cell solution that will allow operators to extend superior 3G, 4G LTE and Wi-Fi connectivity and coverage into the office for in-building customers. The rapid development of the solution has led the company to extend its plans to include LTE and multi-standard residential cells.
Providing seamless connectivity and high performance to wireless subscribers inside of buildings is a growing challenge, exacerbated by the continued adoption of smart mobile devices which are expected to provide seamless experiences for corporate and personal applications. The new 9962 Multi-Standard Enterprise Cell, developed in a collaboration between Alcatel-Lucent and Qualcomm Technologies, allows operators to meet their existing business customer needs to deliver in-building wireless services to support continued growth in data traffic and VoLTE service.
This is the first small cell of its type to support both 3G and 4G LTE connectivity through a single chipset with key features like carrier aggregation. The Qualcomm chipset on which the 9962 is based—the FSM9955—also provides the ability to migrate the radio access technologies from 3G to 4G. Alcatel-Lucent chose the FSM9955 chipset because it is designed to enable low-power, plug-and-play, small form factor small cells that are software configurable to support a mix of 3G, 4G and Wi-Fi technologies. The new small cell is in customer labs today and will be generally available in early 2015.
In addition to the in-building challenge, wireless operators continue to face the challenge of providing cellular coverage and capacity in the home. 3G femto solutions have long been used to improve in-home coverage. As VoLTE becomes more prevalent in wireless networks, with uninterrupted coverage expected in the home, it requires an LTE femto solution for the home be made available to provide a ubiquitous user experience. Alcatel-Lucent expects multi-standard and LTE-only solutions for the home to be generally available in 2015, and is utilizing accelerated development methods by leveraging its efforts currently underway for the 9962 Multi-Standard Enterprise cell.
Neville Meijers, vice president of business development, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., said, "We continue to made good progress collaborating with Alcatel-Lucent on the development of a multi-standard Enterprise small cell, and remain on-track for commercial availability following recent trials. By developing a power efficient chipset that supports 3G, 4G or a mix of technologies, we are offering our customers more flexibility in how they deploy."
Mike Schabel of Alcatel-Lucent said, "Alcatel-Lucent has worked closely with Qualcomm to help operators improve coverage and capacity everywhere. Within a year of announcing the Enterprise solution, we demonstrated it at the Small Cells World Summit in June and are now using it in multiple customer trials. Extending into the residential sector allows us to offer an even greater range of integrated cellular and Wi-Fi products to meet all providers' needs."
About the Alcatel-Lucent 9962 Multi-Standard Enterprise Cell v1
- The Qualcomm Technologies FSM9955 chipset supports both 3G and 4G LTE connectivity on a single chip for the first time. The efficient design makes the Enterprise cell both small and power efficient.
- The Software Defined Radio allows operators to configure the Enterprise small cell to support 3G, 4G or a mix of technologies. This will facilitate the future transition from 3G to 4G networks, allowing operators to reclaim spectrum for use in LTE networks.
- The Enterprise small cell is easily deployed in many locations within the office—wall or ceiling mounted—to optimize coverage.
- The small cell provides support for 64 4G LTE (initially 32 4G LTE users) and 32 3G users simultaneously and up to 128 users in LTE mode only. For large scale deployments, the small cells can be grouped to offer seamless handover.
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ABOUT ALCATEL-LUCENT (EURONEXT PARIS AND NYSE: ALU)
We are at the forefront of global communications, providing products and innovations in IP and cloud networking, as well as ultra-broadband fixed and wireless access to service providers and their customers, and to enterprises and institutions throughout the world. Underpinning us in driving the industrial transformation from voice telephony to high-speed digital delivery of data, video and information is Bell Labs, an integral part of the Group and one of the world's foremost technology research institutes, responsible for countless breakthroughs that have shaped the networking and communications industry. Our innovations have resulted in our Group being recognized by Thomson Reuters as a Top 100 Global Innovator, as well as being named by MIT Technology Review as amongst 2012's Top 50 "World's Most Innovative Companies". We have also been recognized for innovation in sustainability, being named Industry Group Leader in the Technology Hardware & Equipment sector in the 2013 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices review, for making global communications more sustainable, affordable and accessible, all in pursuit of the Group's mission to realize the potential of a connected world.
With revenues of Euro 14.4 billion in 2013, Alcatel-Lucent is listed on the Paris and New York stock exchanges (Euronext and NYSE: ALU). The company is incorporated in France and headquartered in Paris.
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