Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) Addresses Portable LTE with lightRadio

Jean-Pierre Lartigue, product marketing and strategy for Alcatel-Lucent’s (NYSE:ALU) wireless networks business, says the current generation of radio access equipment is not acceptable for all of today’s cellular network needs given the site acquisition and other costs related to macro base stations. So picocells have arrived to address these needs.

Alcatel-Lucent has a new product in this space called lightRadio. It’s a 2G/3G/LTE solution that’s about the size of a child’s block and can support up to 48 users.

Lartigue says China Mobile (NYSE:CHL), Orange, Verizon (NYSE:VZ), and two other wireless carriers already have endorsed the product, which will be in trials by the end of the year, and available in commercial quantities starting next year.

Along with lightRadio, Alcatel-Lucent has introduced a baseband unit in the form of a chipset. The unit, which can be located with the picocell, or be placed remotely to serve multiple picocells, creates the digital signal and brings it to the IP network, says Lartigue. Basically, it does traffic conversion and prioritization.





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