Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) today announced that Telekom Austria Group, the leading provider of communications services in Austria, has selected Alcatel as its technology partner for the delivery of triple play services, including IPTV (Internet protocol television), IP telephony and higher-speed Internet services. Telekom Austria is using Alcatel’s IP-based network infrastructure and end-to-end video solution to support its recently launched aonDigital TV service to households in Vienna.

With aonDigital TV customers can choose from more than 55 broadcast TV channels (some of them available in Austria for the first time), video on demand and additional information service channels. To make navigation of this content easier, aonDigital TV offers a user-friendly electronic program guide (EPG). Moreover, thanks to parental control features, parents can prevent young viewers from accessing inappropriate content. In addition to aonDigital TV Telekom Austria also offers a number of innovative applications for personal-content sharing at its customer portal www.aon.at (e.g., digital photos and self-generated content via the company’s weblog service).

Alcatel has provided an IP-based network infrastructure, including digital subscriber line access multiplexers (DSLAMs), IP routers and optical transport equipment to support the service offering. Alcatel also provided its end-to-end video solution, integrating other technology leaders in segments such as head-ends, set-top boxes and encryption systems.

“By partnering with Alcatel we can offer our customers a completely different TV experience,” said Dr. Stefan Tweraser, Head of Marketing Retail, Telekom Austria. “Information, entertainment and communication services are presented in a compelling and interactive way, directly to their TV set.”
“Telekom Austria is an innovator in broadband services and IPTV, and the launch of aonDigital TV marks another milestone in its continued efforts to provide Austrians with a dynamic entertainment and communications experience”, said Michel Rahier, President of Alcatel’s fixed communications activities. “This project provides further evidence of the strong relationship between Telekom Austria and Alcatel, which spans many years.”

Alcatel is the industry leader in providing purpose-built technology solutions and services integration that allows carriers to reduce the cost and complexity associated with triple play/IPTV deployments. Alcatel is involved in more than 35 major triple play deployments and more than 40 network transformation projects worldwide and is the leader in broadband access with more than 86 million DSL lines shipped worldwide. According to Synergy Research Group, Alcatel is #2 in the Services Edge Router category in Q1 2006, with an 18% market share, following four consecutive quarters of market share gain.. Alcatel is also the world leader in optical networking for the fifth year running with a 16% market share in 2005, according to Ovum-RHK.

KTF, one of South Korea’s leading cellular providers, has launched a next-generation ultra-high speed 3.5G wireless network in Seoul and cities across South Korea using wireless broadband technology from LG-Nortel, a joint venture of LG Electronics and Nortel (NYSE/TSX: NT). The network supports advanced handset capabilities including high-definition (HD) video, video chatting, messaging and remote monitoring.

The new 3.5 G HSDPA, handset-based service is being launched with two handset models in the initial deployment – including the first HSDPA phone from LG Electronics, the LG-KH1000. A further four to five handsets are planned later in the year. KTF’s new service is branded ‘WorldPhone View’, a name representing ‘the world at your fingertips’ through access to video and collaborative multimedia applications.

KTF’s HSDPA mobile communications will be rolled out in 50 cities across South Korea beginning June 30. LG-Nortel is the primary network supplier and is the exclusive vendor for 34 cities including the vast Seoul metropolitan area which alone accounts for almost 50 percent of the total population of Korea. It is estimated that 80 percent of the country’s population will be able to access the service by the end of August 2006. A further 34 cities will be added by year-end, raising that figure to over 90 percent of the population, according to KTF estimates.

“The launch of our ‘WorldPhone View’ HSDPA service is a key component of KTF’s portfolio of next-generation mobile services,” said Won-Jin Park, executive vice president, KTF. “We chose LG-Nortel as the primary supplier for our UMTS/HSDPA network based on its strong technology credentials and our existing relationship. LG-Nortel has successfully implemented a world-class network which allows us to implement groundbreaking services as we enhance the mobile communications experience for all our customers.”

“LG Nortel, with the strong support of our parent companies Nortel and LGE, has implemented a secure, reliable, high-speed network to support the innovative range of services and applications KTF is launching to its customers,” said Peter MacKinnon, chairman of the board, LG-Nortel. “Korea leads the world in wireless broadband and LG-Nortel plays an integral role in ensuring the continuation of that success. We will work closely with KTF on the evolution of their network to support higher uplink speeds and ever-more sophisticated service requirements in the future.”

A key differentiator of HSDPA compared to current technologies is its ability to support high-speed, real-time HD video content. ‘WorldPhone View’ users will be able to access a variety of new services, including video SMS, video ringtone services, video chatting, video ad messaging and video remote monitoring – as well as high-quality video telephony. High-speed broadband capabilities will also enhance music downloads and high-volume multimedia collaboration and set the foundation for more sophisticated online gaming applications. The two HSDPA handsets being launched will also support universal integrated circuit (IC) cards, allowing access to secure transactions for transportation, membership, mobile banking and credit card services.

KTF’s HSDPA wireless network can deliver services at download speeds up to 14.4Mbps. The introduction of LG-Nortel’s HSUPA upgrade, planned for early 2007, will increase uplink speeds to 5.8 Mbps, improving performance for services requiring the high-speed upload of data.

Demonstrating its technology leadership, Nortel achieved the industry’s first HSDPA mobile call in January 2005 and Nortel and LGE completed the first live test calls using a commercial handset solution for HSDPA in March 2005. More recently, in February 2006, Nortel achieved approval for the introduction of high speed OFDM and MIMO packet access, in line with its technology HSOPA, into the Global 3GPP LTE standards. This paves the way for ‘multiplay’ services including voice, high-speed interactive applications including large data transfer, feature-rich IPTV, IMS enabled services, all with full mobility.

Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) today announced that it has been selected by TelefГіnica de Espana to provide access, aggregation and optical networking solutions, enabling TelefГіnica to offer high bandwidth interactive services to its consumer and corporate customers.

The integrated and flexible architecture will provide higher bandwidth capacity per subscriber with unique differentiated quality of services, enabling the simultaneous delivery of personalized multimedia services such as IPTV, video on demand and HDTV to residential customers and advanced virtual private network services for its corporate customers.

“We trust in the support of a strategic partner like Alcatel and its experience and leadership in the broadband market, to evolve our network towards the provision of innovative services that are demanded by our customers. Our objective is that they can all enjoy these high quality services,” said Enrique Carrascal, Network General Manager of TelefГіnica de EspaГ±a.

Michel Rahier, President of Alcatel’s fixed communications activities stated: “TelefГіnicais leveraging Alcatel’s unparalleled experience in triple play deployments worldwide. Our network infrastructure, based on industry-leading solutions and unique end-to-end integration capacity, is reinforcing TelefГіnica’s advanced communication and entertainment services. This success also strengthens our position of partner in such strategic network transformations.”

For broadband access, Alcatel will provide its 7302 Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM) platform, the first high bandwidth IP access platform with xDSL interfaces ranging from ADSL 2+ to the latest VDSL2, and specifically designed to deliver a range of interactive services such as video on demand, IPTV, high-definition TV or high-speed Internet access to all users simultaneously. TelefГіnicawill be able to offer any service from any equipment port, and will combine multiple real-time applications in the network with a guaranteed quality of service.

In the aggregation network, the Alcatel 7450 Ethernet Service Switch will enable TelefГіnica to offer corporate access services and virtual private networks based on MPLS, on a national level. The solution’s unique hierarchical quality of service (H-QoS) capabilities mean that TelefГіnicacan differentiate the traffic it carries, guaranteeing varying classes of service levels, and optimizing bandwidth. As well, the Alcatel 7450 supports multiple service types with tremendous scale and quality of service, which guarantees that stringent Service Level Agreements (SLAs) on business-critical data applications can be met.

For the transport network, Alcatel will provide its dense and coarse WDM optical networking equipment to deliver triple play services, Storage Area Network (SAN) extension and Gigabit Ethernet connectivity. Based on its 1692 Metrospan Edge and 1696 Metrospan, the Alcatel WDM solution enables to multiply up to 32 times the capacity of the rings to transport all types of signals with guaranteed security and quality of service.

Alcatel is involved in more than 35 major triple play deployments and more than 40 network transformation projects worldwide and is the world leader in broadband access with more than 86 million DSL lines shipped worldwide. According to Synergy Research Group, Alcatel is #2 in the Services Edge Router category in Q1 2006, with a 18% market share and according to Ovum-RHK, Alcatel is the world leader in optical networking for the fifth year running with a 16% market share in 2005.