14 DAY TRIAL // SFR and Alcatel-Lucent announced late this week a contract to supply UMTS network equipment for France. Alcatel-Lucent will deploy UMTS/HSPA equipment from September 2007 for the SFR network in France, thus becoming the second 3G supplier for the operator. This new UMTS contract, the first in Western Europe since the acquisition of the 3G UMTS activities of Nortel in January 2007, seems to strengthen Alcatel-Lucent's leading position on the market.
SFR is the second mobile operator in France with more than 18 million subscribers. It was the first operator in France to offer 3G services in 2004 and since then, 3G has become its strategic business priority. SFR is today one of the leaders in France in terms of number of 3G subscribers with more than 2.7 million customers and coverage for nearly 65% of the French population. In the framework of the contract, Alcatel-Lucent will supply its entire UMTS product portfolio.
"This contract reinforces the leading worldwide position of Alcatel-Lucent in mobile broadband, enabled by the acquisition of the 3G/UMTS activities from Nortel. SFR proves its confidence in our technological know-how, in our innovation capability and in our teams. Beyond the contract, it is all about a strategic technologic partnership between two main players in France's telecoms industry," said Olivier Picard, President of the Alcatel-Lucent Europe and South activities.
SFR and Alcatel-Lucent will also form a strategic technologic partnership. This new partnership will allow SFR to have a privileged access to the Alcatel-Lucent worldwide 3G competence center based in France and thus to keep offering its customers higher broadband and state of the art multimedia services.