Convergence Plus Journal

HONGKONG -- Spread-spectrum technology (DS-SST), the basis of cdma2000 and 3G UMTS standards, will make up 75 percent of the global mobile market by 2005, up from 30 percent this year, according to Scott Erickson, senior vice president of Mobility Solutions at Lucent Technology. He added that telecom operators in Asia Pacific are among those in the forefront of the worldwide migration to 3G networks. Erickson was speaking at the recently held ITU Telecom Asia in the city.

Several recent reports from leading research firms indicate that spread-spectrum technologies (including cdma2000/1x, cdma2000/1x EV and UMTS/W-CDMA) will account for more than half of all new wireless subscribers worldwide by 2005, and that the adoption of spread-spectrum technology will continue to accelerate through 2007.

Lucent has benefited from this trend, announcing a series of major 3G CDMA contract wins in the Asia-Pacific region in the past several months. With the addition of recent agreements with China Unicom, Telecom NewZealand, KTF, and Reliance Infocom and Tata Teleservices in India, Lucent has now deployed, or is currently deploying more than 20 commercial 3G networks for mobile operators worldwide.

"Mobile operators in the Asia Pacific region, and worldwide, are turning to our 3G CDMA solutions to help them tap the huge revenue potential of 3G by allowing them to offer attractive new high-speed data services while also supplying substantial voice capacity on the same network," Erickson said. "Our CDMA
spread-spectrum technology expertise has provided us with a significant time-to-market advantage in helping our customers roll out 3G networks worldwide."

Lucent's 3G CDMA networks are enabling operators to provide high-quality voice services as well as advanced wireless data services such as access to email, including emails with large video, audio or graphic attachments, high speed connections to corporate intranets and steaming video, and next-generation data services. Initially targeted at mobile business professionals, new 3G data services will enable subscribers to securely download information and access business-critical applications from an array of devices, including laptops, PDAs and 3G phones.

Markets ready for rapid expansion of wireless services
Lucent's recent 3G CDMA contracts with leading Asia Pacific service providers will significantly enhance the mobile services available to subscribers in four key markets -- China, India, Korea and New Zealand. Each one of these markets is set to experience the rapid expansion of advanced wireless data services, with enterprise users in particular representing considerable market opportunities for service providers.

China Unicom will deploy Lucent's CDMA 1x equipment in the second phase. The deployment will enable Unicom to offer high-speed wireless data services throughout an extensive service area in 10 provinces. The CDMA 1x enhancements will also provide an additional capacity of about five million subscribers by January 2003.

KTF (KT Freetel), with over 10 million subscribers, has selected Lucent to upgrade its 2G network in the Kyungsang province to cdma2000/1x, doubling voice capacity and enabling high-speed data services such as wireless Internet access and video streaming at speeds of upto 150Kbps. Lucent will provide KTF with a cost-effective and smooth migration to 3G voice and data services by adding channel cards and making software upgrades to hundreds of existing Lucent-supplied base stations in the province.

Reliance Infocom in India will roll out a nationwide 3G cdma2000 network based on Lucent Flexent base stations that support cdma2000/1x and mobile switching centers (MSCs). The five-year contract covers this equipment, as well as design and consulting services, and installation and maintenance support.

Tata Teleservices in India will also deploy the Flexent base stations and MSCs to create 3G cdma2000 wireless networks in several Indian states, allowing it to provide high-speed data capabilities to businesses.

Telecom NewZealand has also upgraded its CDMA network to 3G cdma2000/1x using channel cards and software to enhance the existing Lucent-supplied base stations, besides software upgrades for several MSCs. The new network, called Jetstream, doubles Telecom NewZealand's voice capacity, and has enabled it to offer mobile Internet and data services at speeds of upto 153Kbps.

Erickson said: "Lucent's recent successes in the Asia Pacific region can be attributed to our unmatched portfolio of wireless and multiservice network solutions, widespread support for our service intelligent architecture, and the strength of our local capabilities and customer relationships. We have more experience in the design and deployment of spread-spectrum networks than anyone in the industry. We are leveraging this experience and the capabilities of our industry-leading research arm, Bell Labs, in designing more powerful and cost-effective CDMA system components."

Contact:
Lucent Technologies
Tel: 852-2506-8035
Email: dffoley@lucent.com
Web: www.lucent.com

Scott K. Erickson, senior vice president of Mobility Solutions at Lucent Technologies

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