Alcatel-Lucent strengthens its ultra-broadband offering through partnership and investment in EBlink

June 19, 2014 - PRLog -- Paris, June 19, 2014 - Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE- ALU) has signed a commercial and technological partnership agreement with fast-growing wireless start-up EBlink to expand its capabilities for 4G LTE ultra-broadband mobile access networks and small cells. The agreement includes a Euro 3 million investment in EBlink aimed at supporting innovation and accelerating business momentum.

This partnership will enable Alcatel-Lucent’s customers to benefit from EBlink’s advanced wireless solutions. It will provide new technological choices as they evolve their networks toward cloud and small cell architectures in order to meet the soaring demands for wireless data.

Commenting on the agreement, Philippe Keryer, Chief Strategy and Innovation Officer of Alcatel-Lucent said: “As a wireless market leader, Alcatel-Lucent is committed to delivering innovative solutions that meet customers’ mobile ultra-broadband access needs. As announced in The Shift Plan, we are working with companies where it makes sense to strengthen our portfolio of solutions. Our work with EBlink allows us to further extend this comprehensive portfolio to meet all of our customers’ LTE and small cell deployment needs.”

EBlink’s wireless solutions complement Alcatel-Lucent’s wireless LTE and small cells offerings. The expanded portfolio will strengthen Alcatel-Lucent leadership in Cloud RAN and 5G architecture and  drive a reduction in the cost of deployment overall.

Alain Rolland, founder and CEO of EBlink added: “For EBlink, signing this partnership with Alcatel Lucent reaffirms the relevance of our technologies and will contribute to EBlink’s growth. As part of this agreement, Alcatel Lucent will address new market opportunities and distribute EBlink’s wireless fronthaul solutions to its mobile operator customer base worldwide.”

Alain Maloberti, Chief Network Officer of Orange, welcomes the agreement between Alcatel-Lucent and EBlink: he mentions: “Orange has been working with EBlink for several years and we are pleased with the performance of their Wireless Fronthaul solutions. We fully support the integration of EBlink’s technology into the roadmap of our base station vendors.”

EBlink’s innovative Wireless Fronthaul solution represents a major technological advance for base station deployment, eliminating the last few hundred meters of fiber that are so costly for operators. The solution reflects the evolution toward increasingly centralized telecom architectures, and allows for faster and easier deployment of 3G, 4G and future 5G networks. Wireless fronthaul technology is seen as essential to the development of small cells, to ensure much-needed coverage and high-speed service. Industry analysts and major international operators now speak of wireless fronthaul as a technology that has become essential.

About EBlink

Founded in France in 2005, EBlink is revolutionizing the mobile network market with a new standard for the industry: wireless fronthaul. Based on the founders’ vision of evolving mobile network architecture, EBlink’s technology gives operators an immediate solution to the demands of mobile multimedia applications and the increasingly high-speed service they require.

About Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE- ALU)
We are at the forefront of global communications, providing products and innovations in IP and cloud networking, as well as ultra-broadband fixed and wireless access to service providers and their customers, and to enterprises and institutions throughout the world. Underpinning us in driving the industrial transformation from voice telephony to high-speed digital delivery of data, video and information is Bell Labs, an integral part of the Group and one of the world’s foremost technology research institutes, responsible for countless breakthroughs that have shaped the networking and communications industry. Our innovations have resulted in our Group being recognized by Thomson Reuters as a Top 100 Global Innovator, as well as being named by MIT Technology Review as amongst 2012’s Top 50 “World’s Most Innovative Companies”. We have also been recognized for innovation in sustainability, being named Industry Group Leader in the Technology Hardware & Equipment sector in the 2013 Dow Jones Sustainability Indices review, for making global communications more sustainable, affordable and accessible, all in pursuit of the Group’s mission to realize the potential of a connected world.

With revenues of Euro 14.4 billion in 2013, Alcatel-Lucent is listed on the Paris and New York stock exchanges (Euronext and NYSE- ALU). The company is incorporated in France and headquartered in Paris.

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