PARIS, 21 March 2006 — Alcatel has chosen to work with Advanced Electronics Company (AEC) to support the deployment of Alcatel’s Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) solution for Saudi Telecom Company (STC).
Alcatel selected AEC for the integration and testing of its DSL solution to support the recently announced contract with STC, the largest DSL contract in the Middle East. The agreement between Alcatel and AEC bolsters STC’s objectives of contributing to the Saudi industry by involving local firms and the development of local expertise.
Alcatel’s customer-focused professional services and market-leading DSL portfolio combined with AEC’s proven history of implementing a wide range of strategic telecommunication projects will greatly benefit STC and expedite the delivery of DSL services within Saudi Arabia.
“AEC has the technical capabilities and local resources that are capable of meeting the highest international quality standards and different requirements including speed of implementation,” said Dr. Ghassan Al-Shibl, AEC’s president and CEO.
Guy Martin-Prevel, Alcatel’s country manager for Saudi Arabia, added: “AEC’s expertise makes it an ideal partner for Alcatel in the Middle East, and in Saudi Arabia in particular. With this agreement, Alcatel will continue to support the rapid growth of broadband access solutions in the region.”
By the end of 2005 Alcatel passed a major milestone, having cumulatively shipped more than 80 million digital subscriber lines (DSL) to customers worldwide. This achievement was fueled by a 10 percent increase in DSL shipments over the previous year. To date over 180 service providers in more than 75 countries around the world have selected Alcatel’s DSL solutions.
At the heart of Alcatel’s continued broadband access leadership is its Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM) product family. Purposely built with flexibility, Alcatel’s ISAM family is a native IP, non-blocking solution and the market’s first true 100 percent triple play broadband access platform. Accommodating a wide range of access technologies (xDSL, FTTN, FTTU, GPON) and network topologies (central offices as well as remote or rural areas), the ISAM solution also includes VoIP media gateway functionality to interconnect legacy POTS and ISDN customers to NGN backbones. In just over a year, Alcatel’s ISAM family has been chosen by more than 70 service providers around the globe as they move to transform their access network to an IP-based network.
“Alcatel, with the delivery of more than 80 million DSL lines worldwide, has once again demonstrated its ability to reach unprecedented DSL and broadband access milestones well in advance of the competition,” said Erik M. Keith, senior analyst, Broadband Infrastructure, Current Analysis. “Alcatel’s achievements are even more remarkable given the dynamics of the competitive landscape. The company’s global market success is very strong validation of its comprehensive broadband access portfolio and Triple Play Service Delivery Architecture. Clearly, the ISAM family has been a critical solution for Alcatel, extending full native IP and distributed broadband access platform benefits that enable Alcatel to fulfill each carrier customer’s distinct deployment requirements.”
In the Americas, Alcatel’s ISAM family has been chosen by AT&T (US), BellSouth (US), TELUS (Canada), Telefonica Brazil, Telemar (Brazil) and Telefonica del Sur (Chile). In Asia-Pacific, Chunghwa Telecom (Taiwan), China Netcom and China Telecom have chosen the ISAM solution to offer user-centric broadband services at triple the speed of conventional ADSL technology. Alcatel has also been selected by Innove Communications of the Philippines to cost-effectively support their strategic broadband access service objectives.
European service providers such as France Telecom, Swisscom, Telecom Italia, Wind (Italy), Telenor (Nordics), Fiberdata (Sweden), Video Networks Limited (UK), Romtelecom (Romania), Northwest Telecom (Russia) and UTG (Georgia), are deploying the ISAM solution in their networks whether for serving mature or emerging markets. And in the Middle East, ISAM products are enabling Saudi Telecom to meet the growing demand for high-speed Internet access services and high quality broadband applications such as IPTV.
For the Middle East, Alcatel’s technologies are also creating other opportunities. The Hot Bird 7A telecommunication satellite, built by Alcatel Alenia Space as prime contractor, was successfully boosted into orbit last week from Kourou, French Guiana. Hot Bird 7A will enable Eutelsat to broadcast digital television channels as well as radio services in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.
Based on the Alcatel Alenia Space’s Spacebus 3000B3 platform, the new satellite will join Eutelsat’s Hot Bird family of satellites co-located at 13 degree East and currently broadcasting 850 television channels and 550 radio channels to 110 million homes over Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.
Designed with a lifetime of 15 years, Hot Bird 7A has 38 Ku-band transponders, a launch mass of 4,100 kg and its solar panels will deliver 10 kW of electrical power. This satellite will replace Hot Bird 1, will increase in-orbit capacity from 100 transponders to 102 transponders at Hot Bird position and will provide redundancy.
On the launch, Alcatel Alenia Space President and CEO Pascale Sourisse stated, “Alcatel Alenia Space and Eutelsat have been partnering for nearly 20 years. With 16 Alcatel Alenia Space-built satellites provided to Eutelsat to date, we are extremely proud of this long-term position as a preferred supplier. ”