Vodafone New Zealand's Commercial "Sure Signal" Service Powered by Alcatel-Lucent Small Cells

By Alcatel-lucent, PRNE
Sunday, April 3, 2011

Enabling "5-star, 5-bar" 3G Mobile Coverage for Residential and Business Users

PARIS and SINGAPORE (Femto Cells Asia), April 4, 2011 - Vodafone New Zealand has selected Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and
NYSE: ALU) to power its commercial "Sure Signal"
(www.vodafone.co.nz/services/femtocell/) service. Building on
Alcatel-Lucent's small cells expertise, Vodafone's "Sure Signal" is taking 3G
network coverage and capacity in New Zealand to the next level - addressing
the increasingly demanding mobile voice and data requirements of residential
and business users. Alcatel-Lucent's small cells technology smoothly
complements Vodafone New Zealand's existing macro infrastructure, making it
the quickest and most cost-effective way for the service provider to prepare
its mobile network for the upcoming data explosion.

"Some of our consumer and business customers have been
frustrated in the past when they find they don't have indoor coverage and
that the technical options available to improve their coverage were either
too expensive or simply weren't up to the task," said Hamish Sansom, Head of
Mobile Data, Vodafone NZ. "The introduction of Vodafone Sure Signal using the
Alcatel-Lucent femtocell solution means that we can now end the frustration
for these customers. The installation and launch of the solution went very
smoothly and we now have ecstatic customers with five bars of coverage where
they once had none."

Following its commercial launch on February
14th
, the "Sure Signal" service has been boosting the 3G mobile signal
throughout users' houses and offices, giving them an unequalled mobile phone
signal even in environments where this has typically been a challenge (such
as in rural or in-building locations).

"The main driver of small cells adoption
today is the delivery of crystal-clear voice services to buildings or areas
that used to be 'blind' to the macro network. However, both residential and
business users are quickly discovering the benefits from the increased mobile
data capacity as well," commented Wim Sweldens, President of Alcatel-Lucent's
Wireless activities. "As demonstrated by Vodafone New Zealand, the deployment
of small cells makes perfect sense for service providers wishing to
cost-effectively address mobile coverage and capacity challenges. Vodafone
New Zealand can count on our full commitment to helping them benefit from the
differentiating services and features accommodated by small cells
technology."

Studies by Alcatel-Lucent Bell Labs show
that - versus classic Pico or DAS solutions - small cells are not only
cheaper by more than 60%, but also enable in-building mobile coverage much
faster than any other solution available today.

Following on from the successful deployment of its Femto-based 9360 Small
Cells portfolio in the United Kingdom, Alcatel-Lucent has now provided
Vodafone New Zealand with the same end-to-end approach. This includes the
9361 Home Cell, the 9362 Enterprise Cell, the 9366 Small Cell Gateway, and
its best-in-class network management solution which combines the strengths of
Alcatel-Lucent's Wireless Management System, Wireless Provisioning System and
the Home Device Manager from its Motive Product Division. The solution is
complemented by Alcatel-Lucent's 7750 Service Router which provides IP
routing and Ethernet aggregation. In addition, Alcatel-Lucent is providing a
select range of professional services to Vodafone New Zealand which includes
project management, consulting, architecture, design and installation.

About Alcatel-Lucent's small cells approach

Alcatel-Lucent is the leading end-to-end Femto/small cells vendor,
holding more than 20 trials and 19 commercial deployment agreements.
Commercial contracts include the selection of Alcatel-Lucent by Chunghwa
Telecom in Taiwan, Telefonica in Spain, Etisalat and du in the United Arab
Emirates
(UAE) and by Vodafone UK and Vodafone New Zealand as their preferred
vendor for the deployment of a nationwide Femtocell service.

Fully in line with Alcatel-Lucent's recent lightRadio(TM) announcement,
the company sees small cells as a fundamental building block of converged,
IP, more flexible and smarter networks. As a matter of fact, small cells and
lightRadio(TM) are part of the same continuum - from very small to very big
cells. This continuum is reflected in Alcatel-Lucent's wireless portfolio
innovation strategy.

Alcatel-Lucent's portfolio of Femto-based small cells
leverages numerous Bell Labs innovations such as self-organizing networks
(SON). SON empowers small cells to automatically configure at power up; it
also enables them to periodically monitor, update and optimize their neighbor
relation lists and handover parameters - thus reducing handover failures by
up to 80%. Using SON technology, Alcatel-Lucent's small cells have the
capability to continuously adjust transmit power to the surrounding
environment - to deliver the best possible coverage. Bell Labs studies have
found that its SON feature translates to a 20 percent CAPEX savings and 50
percent OPEX savings.

>> More information:

www.alcatel-lucent.com/wireless/femto_small_cells.html

>> Or check out Wilson Street at:

www.wilson-street.com/

About Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE : ALU)

The long-trusted partner of service providers, enterprises,
strategic industries and governments around the world, Alcatel-Lucent is a
leader in mobile, fixed, IP and Optics technologies, and a pioneer in
applications and services. Alcatel-Lucent includes Bell Labs, one of the
world's foremost centres of research and innovation in communications
technology.

With operations in more than 130 countries and one of the most
experienced global services organizations in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is
a local partner with global reach.

The Company achieved revenues of Euro 16 billion in 2010 and
is incorporated in France and headquartered in Paris.

For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on:
www.alcatel-lucent.com, read the latest posts on the Alcatel-Lucent
blog www.alcatel-lucent.com/blog and follow the Company on Twitter:
twitter.com/Alcatel_Lucent.

Alcatel-Lucent Press Contacts, Peter Benedict, Tel: + 33(0)1-40-76-50-84,
peter.benedict at alcatel-lucent.com; Scott Sykes, Tel: +852-2599-2536,
Scott.Sykes at alcatel-lucent.com; Alcatel-Lucent Investor Relations, Frank Maccary,
Tel: +33(0)1-40-76-12-11, frank.maccary at alcatel-lucent.com; Don Sweeney,
Tel: +1-908-582-6153, don.sweeney at alcatel-lucent.com; Tom Bevilacqua,
Tel: +1-908-582-7998, thomas.bevilacqua at alcatel-lucent.com

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