Hungarian mobile operator Pannon has signed a contract with the French vendor Alcatel-Lucent for a cost-efficient mobile backhaul upgrade in an effort to accommodate the growing demand for its HSPA-based mobile broadband services. Alcatel-Lucent will supply a MPLS-based, cost optimized and future proof Remote Access Network (RAN) mobile backhaul solution. Pannon’s HSPA network is available in over 360 towns and villages across Hungary, covering 65% of the country’s population.

Alcatel-Lucent today announced Pannon GSM Távközlési Zrt (Pannon), a leading Hungarian mobile operator and member of the Telenor Group, has selected Alcatel-Lucent’s Remote Access Network (RAN) mobile backhaul solution to accommodate the growing demand for Pannon’s mobile internet services, including 3G High Speed Packet Access (HSPA). By consolidating all services over a single packet-based network, the Alcatel-Lucent solution gives Pannon more bandwidth and scalability at lower operational costs, and permits fast time to market for new and future services.

Pannon serves almost 3.5 million customers and controls approximately 34% of the Hungarian mobile market. Today, Pannon’s high-speed 3G/HSPA network enabling video telephony is available in over 360 towns and villages across Hungary, meaning mobile Internet service is available to 65% of the country’s population. In response to the growing demand, Pannon needed to find a MPLS-based, cost optimized and future proof solution.

“There’s a steadily growing demand in Hungary for mobile Internet services and as a result our bandwidth requirements in backhaul networks, which were based on SDH and microwave, dramatically changed,” said György Koller, Chief Technical Officer of Pannon. “In anticipation of even more growth we decided to transform our RAN Backhaul towards cost-efficient packet technology. Alcatel-Lucent’s solution gives us the resiliency, scalability and outstanding service performance necessary to accommodate multimedia 3G services now and into the future.”

Alcatel-Lucent is delivering the industry’s most comprehensive and integrated mobile solution, from the IP backbone through to the cell tower. The Alcatel-Lucent solution includes the 7750 Service Router, 7705 Service Aggregation Router (SAR), 5620 Service Aware Manager and the newly announced, Alcatel-Lucent 7705 SAR-F (Fixed Form Factor) which is a compact and temperature hardened routing solution for the cell site. The Alcatel-Lucent portfolio of IP/MPLS products delivers a strong foundation on which a family of packet solutions for mobile networks is delivered. These solutions support reliable, scalable, future-proof, cost-efficient and fully-managed transport allowing mobile operators to take full control of their network and quickly enable the delivery of advanced, revenue-generating new services.

“Pannon is steadily increasing the number of its 3G/HSDPA base stations and increasing its bandwidth requirements as it offers mobile broadband internet services to more and more consumers and businesses across Hungary,” said Basil Alwan, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s IP activities. “Converging both legacy and 3G services over a scalable, resilient MPLS network gives Pannon an infrastructure that meets today’s fast growing requirements and is ready for further mobile evolution to 4G technologies such as Long Term Evolution (LTE).”
Pannon joins a list of more than 250 service providers in more than 100 countries that have selected the Alcatel-Lucent IP/MPLS portfolio. During the third quarter of 2008, Alcatel-Lucent reinforced its No. 2 position in the Service Provider IP Edge according to Ovum RHK, Infonetics and Synergy. For more information, please visit: www.alcatel-lucent.com/ipnews

About Pannon
Pannon is one of Hungary’s leading mobile operators. A wholly-owned subsidiary of Telenor of Norway, Pannon was established in 1994 and it soon developed a strong presence in Hungary. By the end of Q3 2008, Pannon had 3.475 million active subscriptions and a market share of 33,12%. Besides voice services, Pannon’s business is increasingly dominated by mobile Internet. In addition to its EDGE network available to 99% of Hungary’s population for e-mail and browsing, Pannon is continuously developing its 3G/HSDPA network offering the highest mobile data transfer rates. The 3G/HSPDA network is currently available in 363 towns and villages across Hungary. Pannon is a leader also in the Hungarian CR landscape: its corporate responsibility initiatives include the annual CR Day, Pannon Példakép Foundation, support for public causes, as well as arts and sports sponsorship. To read more about Pannon please visit external link www.pannon.hu.

About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent is the trusted partner of service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide, providing solutions that 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 17.8 billion in 2007 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: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/wps/portal/newsreleases/detail?LMSG_CABINET=Docs_and_Resource_Ctr&LMSG_CONTENT_FILE=News_Releases
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