Alcatel-Lucent announced that it has successfully made the first calls in LTE lab tests Telefonica is conducting in Latin America. With these tests, Telefonica is analysing in a real environment the maturity and benefits of the LTE mobile broadband technology. The first services were delivered in Telefonica's labs, using Alcatel-Lucent's LTE platform, including base stations, transmission equipment, Evolved Packet Core (EPC), as well as professional design and integration services, in combination with devices from LG Electronics. In a second phase when the field tests will start, the 700 MHz and 2.6 GHz frequencies will be used to assess LTE's performance in terms of coverage and capacity, supporting the delivery of new mobile multimedia applications, such as high-definition video streaming, mobile gaming, high-speed file transfers and video conferencing. Telefonica announced in September 2009 plans to test LTE with six network equipment suppliers in six countries where it operates, including Brazil and Argentina in Latin America.
