MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS, BARCELONA, February 15, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcatel-Lucent today announced it has successfully achieved record speed rates on China Mobile's TD-LTE (time division duplex - long term evolution) trial network - which is being installed to support the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. During extensive tests, peak rates of more than 80Mbps downstream were realized by the team from Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, Alcatel-Lucent's flagship company in China. The World Expo 2010, which will open on May 1st with 70 million expected visitors, will provide a unique venue for all countries to demonstrate latest technological advances.

An industry's first, these TD-LTE peak rates were achieved by using a single 20MHz spectrum band, carrying both the upstream and downstream traffic. And that's an important differentiator versus previously announced breakthroughs in the FDD-LTE (frequency division duplex) space: the tests on China Mobile's TD-LTE network show its readiness to cope with very high bandwidth demands as well, all while using half of the spectrum FDD-LTE networks require to accommodate peak throughputs of 100Mbps (downstream).

These record speed rates on China Mobile's TD-LTE trial network highlight Alcatel-Lucent's commitment to providing our customers with an end-to-end LTE solution matching their specific spectrum and timing strategies, said Romano Valussi, president of Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell and head of Alcatel-Lucent's China regional business unit. Visitors to the event will thus be able to enjoy ultra high-speed mobile Internet access and experience the next generation of high-definition multimedia demonstrations. This will stimulate the worldwide adoption of TD-LTE technology, as well as its future commercialization.

Following the industry's first TD-LTE calls performed in February 2009, this new milestone further reinforces Alcatel-Lucent's ability to make TD-LTE a reality, and once again demonstrates the reliability of Alcatel-Lucent's LTE solutions, he added.

The tests were run using Alcatel-Lucent's end-to-end LTE solution - including eNodeBs (base stations), evolved packet core (EPC) and a range of third-party commercial terminals. Alcatel-Lucent provided its professional services expertise, encompassing network installation and software integration.

This significant milestone comes at the same time as Alcatel-Lucent announcing good progress on the TD-LTE field trial in Shunyi (Beijing)- initiated by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT). Using third-party terminals and following a successful completion of all mobile file systems (MFS) tests, Alcatel-Lucent thus further proves the readiness of its end-to-end LTE solution.

LTE is the next evolution in mobile network standards defined by 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) and supports operations in both the paired spectrum and unpaired spectrum. Alcatel-Lucent is a pioneer in the LTE market, having a common platform for both the time-division duplex (TD) and frequency-division duplex (FD) spectrums - that enables all operators to take advantage of unrivalled economies of scale as they look to provide 4G wireless services to their subscribers.

About Alcatel-Lucent and LTE

With 40 LTE customer trials secured to date, Alcatel-Lucent is a worldwide leader in LTE. The company is actively engaged in the majority of LTE projects being pursued by tier 1 operators around the globe. To help operators realize their potential, Alcatel-Lucent is offering a unique, pre-integrated, end-to-end LTE solution and a full set of associated professional services. Alcatel-Lucent's network architecture is based on Alcatel-Lucent unique converged radio access network (http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/wps/portal/newsreleases/detail?LMSG_CABINE...) (RAN) strategy allowing scaling of W-CDMA networks and smooth evolution to LTE. The company also founded the ng Connect Program (http://www.ngconnect.org/about-us/index.htm), a global initiative to drive the development of an open and diverse ecosystem of LTE device manufacturers, content providers and application partners. Through the ng Connect program and with Alcatel-Lucent's end-to-end LTE solution, wireless broadband operators benefit from open innovation, pre-integrated solutions, reduce time to market with LTE-enabled services, and the ability to drive new and non-traditional business models.

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For more information about Alcatel-Lucent's end-to-end LTE solution, please visit: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/lte

About Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent is the trusted transformation partner of service providers, enterprises, strategic industries such as defense, energy, healthcare, transportation, and governments worldwide, providing solutions to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organization in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 15.2 billion in 2009 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

SOURCE: Alcatel-Lucent

CONTACT: Alcatel-Lucent Press Contacts: Peter Benedict, Tel:+33(0)1-40-76-50-84, peter.benedict@alcatel-lucent.com ; Laurent Dunoyer deSegonzac, Tel: +33(0)1-40-76-15-04,laurent.dunoyer_de_segonzac@alcatel-lucent.com . Alcatel-Lucent InvestorRelations: Rémi Thomas, Tel: +33(0)1-40-76-50-61,remi.thomas@alcatel-lucent.com ; Don Sweeney, Tel: +1-908-582-6153,dsweeney@alcatel-lucent.com ; Tom Bevilacqua, Tel: +1-908-582-7998,bevilacqua@alcatel-lucent.com ; Tony Lucido, Tel: +1-908-582-5722,alucido@alcatel-lucent.com .