Saudi Telecom Company (STC), a leading telecom services provider in Saudi Arabia, has selected Alcatel-Lucent to conduct an end-to-end Long Term Evolution (LTE) trial which is due to begin in the second half of 2010.

This trial will enable the Saudi group to test the performance of LTE-based services and assess the related business models, said a top official.

“As a major operator, STC is committed to providing its customers superior service. It is clear to us that LTE has evolved to being more than just a promising technology,” said Dr Zeyad Al-Otaibi, STC’s vice president Networks.

“As STC and Alcatel-Lucent are both on the edge of innovation, we are confident that this trial will help us fulfill our customers’ needs for innovative mobile broadband services,” he noted.

Alcatel-Lucent will be leveraging its industry-leading LTE expertise to provide an end-to-end integrated solution including LTE base stations (eNodeBs), the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), IP service routing network elements as well as operation, administration and maintenance (OAM) systems.

Alcatel-Lucent said it will also provide a range of professional services including project management, planning, installation, integration and commissioning, and testing.

“This trial is a major step in the adoption of LTE technology in the Middle-East. STC can count on our technical leadership and transformation expertise to unleash LTE’s full business potential,” said Amr El Leithy, head of Alcatel-Lucent’s activities in Africa and the Middle East.

“We consider this agreement to be a strong endorsement of Alcatel-Lucent’s innovation and forward-looking strategy in the area of mobile broadband solutions and efficient high-performance IP-based network,” he added.

Alcatel-Lucent’s LTE solution and services are leveraged in the majority of LTE projects being pursued by Tier 1 operators around the globe, including in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.-TradeArabia News Service