WiMAX Deployment for France

Alcatel-Lucent and France's SHD, a joint venture between SFR and Neuf Cegetel, have signed a two-year contract for the supply and installation of the first next-gen WiMAX network in France, using standard 802.16e-2005.

Alcatel-Lucent will equip the planned sites of SHD's WiMAX network in the Ile-de-France (IDF) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d?Azur (PACA) regions by mid-2009. The first sites are already operational in the Paris region due to a pilot network deployed at the end of 2006 and will be operational in the PACA region this summer, thanks to the second pilot network deployed by SHD and Alcatel-Lucent.

Based on the latest standard IEEE 802.16e-2005, the new radio network will use the 3.4 ? 3.6 GHz frequency band.

"This contract follows on from the success of the first pilot WiMAX network deployed by Alcatel-Lucent for SHD last December on ten sites in the Paris region," commented Frédéric Laforest, Executive Vice-President of SHD."

Posted to the site on 13th July 2007