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Alcatel-Lucent's Alternative Energy Program is Telecom Market's First Solution for High-Volume Deployment of Wireless Base Stations Powered With Alternative Energies

Posted on: Tuesday, 17 February 2009, 02:30 CST

BARCELONA (Mobile World Congress), February 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext and NYSE: ALU) today launched a comprehensive program to enable the high-volume deployment of wireless base stations powered by alternative energy sources to address mobile operators' increasing demand for energy-autonomous and green wireless networking equipment.

Alcatel-Lucent's new "Alternative Energy Program" will help ensure that service providers can quickly and cost-efficiently deploy wireless networks even to areas not served by electrical power, in all range of climates and geographies and under all deployment conditions. As part of the program the company is establishing a unique lab and pilot site at Alcatel-Lucent's Villarceaux facility near Paris to foster an ecosystem of internal experts, partner companies and institutions to bring together the alternative energies and telecoms worlds.

"The way the industry deploys alternative energy powered base stations today is costly and time consuming because it is based on a site-by-site approach with multiple vendors involved - so it is a slow and laborious process and for the most part has only been done in sunny equatorial areas," said Mike Iandolo, Alcatel-Lucent's President of Alcatel-Lucent's Wireless Product Division. "Our Alternative Energy Program will bring to market the very first integrated, pre-tested, mass-produced, alternatively powered wireless base stations, which can be deployed on a global scale with delivery lead times comparable to that for standard base stations."

This project will allow operators to extend the reach of their mobile services to serve a huge population of potential new subscribers - the more than one billion people living in areas that are not served by an electrical grid and therefore do not have access to phone or broadband services. It also will enable operators to renovate their existing sites with alternative energy powered solutions that will reduce their operating costs and better preserve the environment.

The lab and pilot site near Paris is a development and live testing facility that will enable Alcatel-Lucent to analyze, evaluate, test and validate solutions being offered in the dynamic and fragmented alternative energies market and how they might be incorporated into the telecommunications industry. This facility will enable Alcatel-Lucent's R&D teams to build in unprecedented levels of integration between alternative energy sources and telecommunications equipment to improve the overall energy efficiency of the telecom sites and lower costs for operators.

"Alcatel-Lucent is a true pioneer in the field of alternative energy for telecoms. It has demonstrated clear vision and strategy and, more importantly, a coherent organization and implementation path. With the Alternative Energy Program, it will certainly play an important role in answering the growing demand for green base stations," commented Stuart Carlaw, Vice President and Chief Research Officer ABI Research.

The program capitalizes on Alcatel-Lucent's recent energy efficiency innovations for wireless networks, and on its field experience with alternative energy through the installation of more than 300 solar-powered radio sites, to provide a robust set of turnkey base stations solutions powered with various alternative energies sources such as solar, wind, fuel cells, etc. The company's recent innovations in energy efficiency for base stations include products and components such as the Twin TRX transceiver module, multi-carrier power amplifiers, direct air cooling and dynamic power save techniques (software-based) that are key elements of Alcatel-Lucent's "Alternative Energy Program". For more information: http://www1.alcatel-lucent.com/tmp_Static/powerperformance/powerperfor mance.jhtml

(Due to the length of this URL, it may be necessary to copy and paste this hyperlink into your Internet browser's URL address field. Remove the space if one exists.)

The program relies on Alcatel-Lucent's "Sustainable Power" service suite to help customers develop a comprehensive deployment plan tailored to their specific environment. Alcatel-Lucent provides consulting, analysis and management of the installation, transformation and integration of the entire network.

A key component of the Alcatel-Lucent approach is the smart integration between the base station and the alternative energy source, and part of this integration is supported by the energy controller equipment. Alcatel-Lucent will be testing the power controller from Power Oasis, an innovative UK-based provider of power solutions.

"PowerOasis is delighted that Alcatel-Lucent has selected our next-generation, renewable energy power controller as part of their innovative Alternative Energy pilot and lab platform in Villarceaux. As a fundamental component in the overall solution, our controller intelligently integrates solar energy, wind energy and batteries to provide independently controllable, carrier-class power supplies to Alcatel-Lucent's base stations and backhaul with full remote monitoring and operation and maintenance center alarming capabilities," said Nick Smailes, PowerOasis CEO.

Smailes added that Alcatel-Lucent's wireless equipment requires very little energy, making the company an ideal telecommunications infrastructure provider to demonstrate that renewable power is now technically and economically viable as an alternative energy source for wireless telecommunications.

Looking forward, the program will not be limited to wireless base station but will expand the use of alternative energy sources to fixed access equipment such as DSLAMs, IP routers and more.

Alcatel-Lucent is listed amongst the five finalists of the GSMA Green Mobile Award competition being conducted in conjunction with the Mobile World Congress exhibition Tradeshow and Exhibition.

About Power Oasis

PowerOasis (http://www.power-oasis.com) is a UK-based provider of efficient power solutions for off-grid mobile base stations and those connected to unreliable electricity grids. PowerOasis has developed a sophisticated power controller which blends any combination of solar, wind and diesel sources to provide independent, telco-grade power supplies for the BTS and backhaul with full OMC alarming capabilities and remote monitoring. With a unique combination of expertise in renewable energy and mobile telecommunications, PowerOasis helps mobile network operators with network power challenges including economic modelling, network power planning, detailed site dimensioning and end-to-end project management of power installations. In 2008 the Carbon Trust awarded PowerOasis a grant to further its leading edge work in telecoms renewables.

About Alcatel-Lucent's eco sustainability initiatives

As a responsible corporate citizen and leader in the telecoms industry, Alcatel-Lucent works to enrich people's lives-by transforming the way the world communicates and connects, and by acting in full recognition of its social and environmental responsibilities as a company. Alcatel-Lucent also recognises the important role the telecommunications sector must play in the global effort to address environmental issues such as climate change. It is devoted to be an active community player and to involve suppliers and business partners in its sustainability approach.

About Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is the trusted partner of service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide, providing solutions that to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organization in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 16.98 billion in 2008 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

SOURCE Alcatel-Lucent

Source: PR Newswire

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