Dr. Walter Döring, Minister van Economische Zaken in Baden-Wurtenberg heeft dinsdag Alcatel's 3G Reality Center in Stuttgart officieel geopend. Dit centrum is reeds operationeel sinds juni dit jaar en is het eerste 'end-to-end' 3G/UMTS testnetwerk in Duitsland. Na de opening van het centrum in Rijswijk twee weken geleden, is dit het jongste lid van Alcatel's wereldwijde 3G Reality Center programm.
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Alcatel launches the first end-to-end,fully open 3G/UMTS mobile facility in Germany With this 3G Reality Centre next generation applications and services are on their way to consumers and business users.
Paris and Stuttgart November 27, 2002 - Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA), the world's largest telecom infrastructure vendor and fastest-growing GSM/GPRS/EDGE supplier, officially inaugurated its 3G Reality Centre in Stuttgart, Germany today. This facility, which has been operational since June of this year, is the first end-to-end, fully open 3G/UMTS mobile facility in Germany and a new member to Alcatel's worldwide 3G Reality Centre program. This global network of state-of-the-art 3G Reality Centres is offering its partners a unique live and comprehensive 2.5G/GPRS and 3G/UMTS end-to-end environment for the development, testing, validation and promotion of advanced mobile data applications and services.
Dr. Walter Döring, Minister of Economic Affairs in Baden-Wurtenberg, officiating at the launch ceremony, has personally experienced 3G mobile telephony and discovered the difference broadband makes. A live mobile videophony call established between Kuala Lumpur and Stuttgart has given him, in particular, the unique opportunity to see in real time the Malaysian person he was speaking to as well as the Petronas towers in the background, the world's tallest buildings. "The Alcatel initiative is a key step to help further strengthen the position of Baden-Wurtemberg as a main Telecommunication and IT region," says Dr. Walter Döring, Minister of Economic Affairs in Baden-Wurtenberg. "Broadband technologies - whether wireline or wireless - play a key role for the future development."
At today's opening, visitors were also able to experience mobile applications and services such as web browsing, access to online information, images and video transfer or downloading, TV streaming, interactive online game, and even a live video call between two cars ? all while on the move. The Alcatel 3G Reality Centre in Stuttgart is intended to foster the development and testing of some of the most exciting mobile applications and services. It enables the mobile community in Germany and in Europe to investigate the potential of such next generation mobile multimedia and data solutions from GPRS to UMTS. This is a key factor to support the successful commercial roll out of 3G. This live and comprehensive environment is already attracting partners, big and small, from the fields of application development, content creation and handset design.
In Germany, amongst others, PTV AG, a company providing software, consulting and research for travel, traffic and transportation planning in the B2B field, is testing its NaviGuide application already available via GSM or GPRS. With 3G/UMTS, it will become in the near future even more powerful and colourful. To achieve that, PTV is able to capitalise on the high quality and coverage of the 3G/UMTS network Alcatel has set up in Stuttgart. It allows testing of the new mobile applications in an area of roughly 10 square kilometres. In addition the network features highly stable voice and data connections with data rates reaching 384 kbps and speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour.
"We are making progress every day and achieving significant milestones with 3G technology, applications and services," declared Marc Rouanne, President of Alcatel's Mobile Networks activities. "The 3G Reality Centre in Stuttgart is providing Alcatel and the German wireless community with invaluable experience and learning opportunities that are paving the way to successfully roll out 3G services in Europe and in the World." Heinrich W. Kreutzer, CTO of Alcatel SEL, added, "The 3G Reality Centre in Stuttgart shows the importance Alcatel places in the German market. In Addition to our investments in R&D and the Joint Venture with Fujitsu it clearly shows that we will continue to shape the future of mobile communications. The 3GRC will be an important part of that development."
PTV board spokesman Dr. Hans Hubschneider said, "It's fascinating to experience UMTS live after such long discussions. As a result, we are in a much better position to adapt our mobile services to the mobile communications bandwidths of the future. For the telecommunications industry, we will retain our position as the innovation leader for location-based applications and telematics services".
The 3G Reality Centre in Stuttgart is running on the latest Alcatel Evolium? solutions including the UTRAN (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network) radio systems, the Core network, as well as the associated Radio Network Controller (RNC) and a dedicated Application Service platform. The radio systems, which include the UMTS base stations (Node B) are developed and produced by Evolium SAS, the joint venture between Alcatel and Fujitsu, in full compliance with UMTS 3GPP standards.
3G Reality Centres are already operational in Kuala Lumpur, Lisbon, Malmö , Paris, Shanghai, Taipei, Rijswijk and now in Stuttgart. Additional 3G Reality Centres will be operational by the end of 2002, especially in Vimercate (Italy), and by first quarter of 2003 in Australia, Japan and Korea, thanks to 3G UMTS pilot networks installed by Alcatel.
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.
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 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 the main supplier of NTT DoCoMo. NTT DoCoMo, the world's leading mobile communications company, provides a wide variety of leading-edge mobile multimedia services. These include i-mode, 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.
Voor nadere informatie:
Alcatel, Eva Fodor, T. 070-3079815, E. eva.fodor@alcatel.nl
Steijger.comm, Milaine de Roos, T. 036-5235330, E. milaine@steijger.com