Alcatel-Lucent, Etisalat make first 4G LTE mobile broadband connection in UAE 

(MENAFN - Arab News) Alcatel-Lucent together with Etisalat, a major mobile telecommunications operator in the UAE, have successfully completed a technology trial with the groundbreaking lightRadio portfolio highlighting how it can meet fast-growing customer demand for high-bandwidth mobile broadband services.

This is the first mobile broadband connection made in the UAE made possible by Alcatel-Lucent's lightRadio architecture over a working 4G LTE network.

Alcatel-Lucent showcased the capabilities of its new lightRadio Metro Radio Outdoor (MRO) product at Etisalat's headquarters in Abu Dhabi, making the lightning-fast data connection over Etisalat's commercial 4G LTE network, also powered by Alcatel-Lucent. This new offering is part of Alcatel-Lucent's market-leading lightRadio Small Cells product family, and based on the lightRadio cube. It extends a service provider's LTE network to provide hot-spot coverage in densely populated areas such as shopping malls, airports, and sports stadiums.

In the UAE, demand for high-speed connections to mobile broadband services such as videoconferencing and on-demand TV has been driven by the mass take-up of smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. In October 2011 Alcatel-Lucent and Etisalat signed an agreement to jointly develop the most sustainable and efficient way to meet this demand using the groundbreaking lightRadio portfolio. This successful trial of the latest technology marks a major milestone in turning that promise into a reality.

Ahmad Abdul Karim Julfar, Etisalat Group CEO, said: "With lightRadio we will not only be able to accommodate this growth in traffic, but we will also be able to offer our customers the most innovative solutions so they can easily access the latest and greatest mobile data applications on their mobile device of choice."

Stephen Carter, president, Europe, MEA, Alcatel-Lucent, said: "The work completed as part of this successful project has yielded valuable data about how service providers such as Etisalat can very easily deploy Alcatel-Lucent's metrocells to transform the mobile broadband experience for their customers, while at the same time reducing their power consumption, costs and equipment footprint."