CDMA2000 Expansion in Venezuela

Telcel BellSouth has signed a 3-year contract with Lucent Technologies to continue building a CDMA2000 network in Venezuela. The initial deployment of this network began in Caracas and will expand to other areas of the country. In addition, Lucent may supply CDMA2000 1xEV-DO equipment in the future, enabling Telcel BellSouth to then provide data speeds of up to 2.4 Megabits per second. CDMA2000 will be deployed in Telcel's existing radio frequency spectrum.

Lucent will upgrade Telcel's Lucent CDMA base stations with CDMA2000 1X channel cards and software and provide a packet data platform. Lucent Flexent(R) Modular Cell 3.0 base stations, a recently introduced CDMA product, and mobile switching centers will also be supplied to help Telcel BellSouth expand its network.

Lucent is the primary provider of network infrastructure for Telcel's network, having built wireless networks based on CDMA in various regions and cities in Venezuela including the initial CDMA2000 1X system in Caracas.'"

Posted to the site on 23rd May 2002