Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) has been singled out as the Supplier of Reference by Vodafone Group (VOD) for providing Long Term Evolution (LTE) metro cells incorporated with Wi-Fi to amplify its LTE ultra-broadband services. This award is a part of Vodafone’s organic investment program – Project Spring.
The award will enable Alcatel-Lucent to leverage its Metro Cell Outdoor small cell solutions by bidding on all Vodafone’s businesses across the globe.
Small cells, especially the metro cells, are beneficial for addressing the growing mobile network demand as they can significantly improve the network by increasing the capacity while reducing load on the macro network. Small cells are especially a boon for the high traffic areas as they can augment the existing network substantially and that too without major infrastructural changes.
The rising demand for high speed data by the users of advanced mobile devices like smartphones and tablets has made it a necessity for the operators to upgrade their networks. The cost of upgrading the macro network is huge compared to that of the small cell solutions. Therefore, most of the operators are opting for small cell solutions to boost their LTE networks.
Vodafone has been taking persistent efforts to develop its network and improve consumer experience. The company has been deploying multi-vendor heterogeneous networks (Hetnets) to enhance its mobile ultra-broadband offerings. This award to Alcatel-Lucent is a part of the company’s initiatives to achieve the same.
Prior to this, Alcatel-Lucent had deployed both residential and enterprise small cells for Vodafone. Also, the company had undertaken a trial of its advanced small cell offerings in Netherlands using the Vodafone network.
Alcatel Lucent being a leader in the small cell technology has also been selected by other telecom majors like Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ) and Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) in the recent past.
Alcatel Lucent currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
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