Europe: Vodafone taps Alcatel-Lucent for Project Spring small cells

Vodafone selected Alcatel-Lucent as a “supplier of reference” for small cell and Wi-Fi technology as part of its Project Spring investment program. Through Project Spring, Vodafone plans to spend about $11 billion to expand and improve its LTE and 3G coverage in Europe and emerging markets. The London-based carrier will include Alcatel-Lucent’s metro cell technology in its upgrade to create mesh networks with existing macro cells to improve the customer experience in urban areas.
While the financial details of the deal were not disclosed, the selection allows the Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent to bid on small cell projects in all Vodafone countries. The London-based Vodafone owns and operates networks in 21 countries and has partner networks in over 40 more. The carrier also plans to build 70,000 small cell and Wi-Fi sites by March 2016.
Luis Martinez Amago, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s Europe, Middle East and Africa region, called the selection “a strong endorsement” of Alcatel-Lucent’s small cell technology.
“Vodafone Group is taking a leadership role with the deployment of small cells throughout their global properties and by serving as an industry reference with the deployment of a multi-vendor heterogeneous architecture,” Amago said.
More telecom news from Europe:
—Telisonora is set to buy Tele2 Norweigen operations. The deal, which is worth about $747 million, will raise TeliaSonora’s share in the Norway’s mobile market to about 40%. The Stockhom-based company also has accelerated its plan to cover 98% of the Norweigain population with LTE services, moving the deadline up two years. It will now be completed in 2016.
—U.K. emergency legislation would require telecoms to keep detailed user records. If adopted, the new law would require carriers to hold records of phone calls, texts and Internet usage for up to a year.
—​Deutsche Telekom may drop Wi-Fi partner, Let’s Gowex.  Bloomberg reports that the DT is evaluating its relationship with Gowex after revelations that the Spanish company falsified financial accounts for four years. Currently, customers of DT and Gowex can use the wireless hot spots of either company: Deutsche Telekom has thousands of hot spots in Europe, the U.S. and on planes, while Gowex has spots in key cities such as Madrid, Paris, Dubai and Buenos Aires.
—T-Systems opened a new “high tech Fort Knox,” which it claims is the biggest data center in Germany. DT’s corporate arm, T-Systems, opened the center on July 3 in Biere, Germany, in response to demand for secure cloud-services based within the country’s borders.
—Orange wants consolidation in the French market; it just doesn’t want to lead it. CEO Stephane Richard urged Orange’s rivals, Bouygues, Iliad and SFR to take the lead in consolidating the market. After a three-year price war in France, Richard believes wireless bills are as low as they can go, and further low-cost offers will no longer help any company take market share.
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