Paris, October 11th, 2002 - Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA), one of the leading telecom infrastructure vendors, announced that it is establishing daily live 3G/UMTS mobile videophony communications between Asia and Europe. On September 12th, the Malaysian Ministry of Energy, Communications & Multimedia as well as other local officials and international press, appreciated for the first time the quality of such combined voice and video calls between Kuala Lumpur and Paris during the official opening of Alcatel's 3G Reality Centre in Malaysia.
This World Premiere follows the mobile videophony calls conducted by Alcatel in Europe during the past few months, linking various 3G/UMTS pilot networks deployed by Alcatel in Portugal, Spain, Italy, France and Sweden. Ever since, Alcatel has been conducting mobile videophony calls inside Asia, namely between Singapore and Kuala Lumpur as part of the 3GSM Asia Pacific congress.
In this sequence of successful premieres based on Alcatel's 3G/UMTS leading-edge solutions, the lucky videophony users were the first in the world to see and hear each other in full mobility, as well as to watch what was happening "live" in their respective countries. All these calls were made using 3GPP-compliant mobile handsets communicating over Alcatel's Evolium™ Core and radio solutions. Back in June, Alcatel had already provided Italian and Spanish supporters with the opportunity to share their passion in streaming and transferring clips over UMTS of the latest goals scored during the 2002 Soccer World Cup.
To achieve all this, the same 3G/UMTS Asian mobile handsets are able to reach both 384 Kbps in packet switch mode and 64Kbps in circuit switch mode that are allowed by the end-to-end 3G/UMTS pilot networks deployed by Alcatel around the world in full compliance with W-CDMA 3GPP standards.
"This World Premiere between Asia and Europe demonstrates Alcatel's head-start with its 3G future-proven solutions. It marks a new milestone in our recommended stepped approach towards UMTS, while capturing user interest and creating market confidence, which is critical to the successful launch of 3G networks. We're currently focused on real world deployments, having delivered over 20 pilot networks to this date, bridging the world with 3G/UMTS technology", said Marc Rouanne, President of Alcatel's Mobile Networks activities.
About Alcatel
Alcatel designs, develops and builds innovative and competitive communications networks, enabling carriers, service providers and enterprises to deliver any type of content, such as voice, data and multimedia, to any type of consumer, anywhere in the world. Relying on its leading and comprehensive products and solutions portfolio, stretching from end-to-end optical infrastructures, fixed and mobile networks to broadband access, Alcatel's customers can focus on optimizing their service offerings and revenue streams. With sales of EURO 25 billion in 2001, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet: http://www.alcatel.com
About Alcatel's 3G Reality Centres
Alcatel's 3G Reality Centre program is a worldwide initiative with special emphasis on 3G/UMTS in Europe and Asia. They offer Alcatel and its partners, including local content and applications providers as well as handset suppliers, a live and comprehensive end-to-end environment for the development, validation and testing of advanced mobile applications and data services, in the field of 2.5G/GPRS, and 3G/UMTS. Such centres are already operational in Kuala Lumpur, Lisbon, Malmö (Sweden), Paris, Rijswijk (Netherlands), Stuttgart, Shanghai, Taipei and Vimercate (Italy).
About Alcatel's Evolium solutions
Alcatel is now the world's fastest growing GSM/GPRS supplier. Currently, over 110 mobile operators worldwide rely on Alcatel's Evolium(TM) GSM/GPRS core and radio solutions. By creating Evolium SAS, an Alcatel-Fujitsu company, Alcatel clearly reinforces its position in both mobile infrastructure and mobile Internet. Evolium SAS combines Alcatel's expertise in GSM, GPRS, and EDGE as well as in ATM and IP technologies, with the advanced experience of Fujitsu as supplier of NTT DoCoMo. NTT DoCoMo is the world's leading mobile communications company with more than 40 million customers. The company provides a wide variety of leading-edge mobile multimedia services. These include i-mode(TM), the world's most popular mobile Internet service, which provides e-mail and Internet access to over 32 million subscribers, and FOMA, launched in 2001 as the world's first 3G mobile service based on W-CDMA. Alcatel's UMTS solutions are a reality today, with 20 UMTS pilot networks in operation or planned to be delivered by Alcatel in Europe and in Asia by the end of 2002. Alcatel's strategy covers all aspects of UMTS deployment, from radio access and core network to terminals. Evolium SAS delivers a radio infrastructure that is 3GPP-compliant, field-proven and capitalises on Japanese 3G technical and field experience. Alcatel, which played a vital part in developing the mobile Internet market, in particular through the successful roll out of GPRS commercial networks world-wide, has today a timely UMTS offering.
Local press Contact Alcatel Netherlands:
Eva Fodor
Tel : +31 70 307 98 15
eva.fodor@alcatel.nl