Airtel Africa CEO says Alcatel-Lucent’s IP-based technology to improve QoS in 17 countries

Telecom Lead Africa: Airtel Africa CEO Manoj Kohli said Alcatel-Lucent’s new IP-based technology will support Airtel’s operations in 17 countries to better quality of services.

Airtel Africa CEO Manoj Kohli

“The new network implementation not only provides a substantially improved quality of service for our current customers, it also does an excellent job of preparing Airtel Africa for future international expansion opportunities,” said Bharti Airtel CEO (International) Manoj Kohli.

Alcatel-Lucent will supply advanced new IP (Internet Protocol)-based networking technology to support Bharti Airtel in delivery of new mobile broadband data and video services in Africa, Alcatel-Lucent said in a statement.

The gear maker did not disclose the size of the deal. This new backbone network will support mobile broadband services to Airtel’s 17 affiliates across Africa – serving 60 million customers as well as interconnection to global networks including the UK.

The single international network will offer a more simple structure to improve performance, reliability, capacity convergence and interoperable mechanisms for faster service recovery.

Alcatel-Lucent is gaining momentum in IP space. Recently, Telefonica Group selected Alcatel-Lucent to upgrade IP networks, initially in Argentina and the Czech Republic.

Alcatel-Lucent is also strong in China. China Telecom recently tied up with Alcatel-Lucent to deploy IP technology. The Alcatel-Lucent technology will allow China Telecom to meet demand for video and data services for householders and consumers. In May 2012, China Telecom announced the expansion of
its broadband access network.

BT Ireland is yet another customer of Alcatel-Lucent. It is providing its IP portfolio, including 7750 Service Router and 5620 Service Aware Manager to BT Ireland. BT Ireland has selected Alcatel-Lucent’s IP portfolio to strengthen its IP Connect Ireland service as part of its extensive network infrastructure in Ireland.

In India, Alcatel-Lucent works with Airtel to create IP access network based on Carrier Ethernet technology (CEN). The new IP access network based on CEN will enable Airtel to deliver faster mobile broadband speeds to its customers. The CEN-based IP access network will help the company to offer its customers various services such as video streaming, high speed data , social network-based applications, online gaming, video conferencing and online collaboration.

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