Lucent Technologies today announced that it will participate in field testing of third-generation (3G) mobile networking technologies, which is being sponsored by China's Ministry of Information Industries (MII). As part of the testing regime, Lucent will team up with China Netcom for W-CDMA (also known as UMTS) trials in Shanghai, and China Telecom for CDMA2000 trials in Guangzhou.
The trials will be conducted over networks of various service providers in China using 2.1 Gigahertz (GHz) spectrum, which is to be allotted to operators to launch commercial 3G services. The trials will involve live voice and high-speed data calls, and compatibility tests between the network equipment of participating vendors.
"The trials provide an ideal opportunity for Lucent to showcase its leading 3G solutions and demonstrate its long-term commitment to China's mobile communications market," said Jason Chi, chairman and president of Lucent Technologies China. "As the global leader in 3G spread-spectrum technologies, Lucent is well-positioned to work closely with Chinese service providers on these future 3G deployments."
"One of the major challenges for service providers as they migrate to 3G is the uncertainty around various technologies and the demand for the services these technologies make possible," said Jim Brewington, president of Lucent's Mobility Solutions Group. "Given the extensive experience Lucent has in virtually every segment of today's mobile communications market, we are confident that we can help operators in China explore their options, and make their investment decisions with peace of mind that those investments will be fully protected."
Lucent's strength in 3G is backed by a tremendous amount of expertise in spread-spectrum technology, the basis of both CDMA2000 and W-CDMA/UMTS networks, providing service providers with smooth migration paths to next- generation services while maximizing their existing investments.
Lucent is leading the world's 3G mobile industry, with an installed base of more than 80,000 spread-spectrum base-stations in commercial networks worldwide, more than 50,000 of which support 3G services. Lucent has deployed CDMA2000 1X networks with more than 25 mobile operators on the continents of North and South America, Asia, Europe and in the Australia/New Zealand region.
Lucent continues to lead the way in development and deployment of CDMA2000 solutions. For instance, Lucent recently helped Verizon Wireless launch a commercial 3G CDMA2000 1xEV-DO network in the Washington, D.C.-area to provide business customers with secure mobile access to corporate applications such as e-mail and Intranets at data transmission speeds comparable to the fastest wireline connections. Lucent also was the first vendor in North America to complete CDMA2000 voice and high-speed data calls for 2.1 GHz spectrum.
Lucent also is collaborating with major UMTS/W-CDMA operators in Europe and North America on the development of their 3G networks. Lucent recently announced that the company is working with AT&T Wireless to deploy a 3G W-CDMA trial network in the greater Miami area to evaluate mobile voice and high-speed data services. Additionally, Lucent continues to collaborate with T-Mobile in Germany, and Telefonica Moviles in Spain on UMTS pilot network initiatives offering high-speed mobile data services to business customers.
Lucent remains totally committed to China's mobile communications industry. Earlier in the year, Lucent successfully completed interoperability testing of its W-CDMA systems with key suppliers in China, and announced a sizable investment in a 3G research and development facility in Nanjing, and additional investment in softswitch R&D in Qingdao. Lucent also successfully completed trials with MTNet earlier this year in both W-CDMA and CDMA2000 for 2.1 GHz spectrum. The testing involved voice and high-speed data calls as well as interoperability testing with other telecom equipment vendo
