Europe : Lucent Technologies announced that it has signed an agreement with the Andalusian Regional Government to deploy a third-generation (3G) Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) network for a major business and technology park in Seville within "Cartuja 93," as part of a project to provide companies and research institutions in the region with mobile, high-speed data capabilities. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Inset is the Lucent Flexent (r) OneBTS (r) base station for UMTS operators.

The high-speed UMTS network deployment is part of the "Cartuja-UMTS-3G" project, headed by the University of Seville, and will enable secure mobile access to applications such as e-mail, the Internet and company databases at speeds of up to 384 kilobits per second (kbps). The deployment will provide companies within the park with a commercial 3G UMTS infrastructure that will help support research and development of state-of-the-art mobile telephony products and services.

Under the agreement, Lucent will supply an end-to-end 3G UMTS network. Lucent Worldwide Services will provide installation and network integration services and on-going support for the 3G UMTS network. Lucent also will provide training and support to assist the companies' transition to 3G UMTS and to facilitate the development of advanced mobile services by the companies using this network.

Lucent's end-to-end UMTS network will include solutions such as its Flexent® OneBTS® base stations and core data networking platforms including the Flexent Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN). The deployment will also include Lucent's Super Distributed Home Location Register (SDHLR) -- a Bell Labs Research innovation that manages customer information for both voice and 3G data services -- and the Lucent MiLife(tm) Intelligent Services Gateway, which enables the accelerated introduction of new services across multiple network types.

Lucent also will supply Merlin U530(tm) third-generation 3G UMTS wireless PC card modems -- jointly developed with Novatel Wireless (NASDAQ: NVTL) -- which support high-speed data connections on laptops, PDAs and other mobile devices.

"Our research has found that there is considerable enterprise demand for high-speed data services," said David Poticny, president of Lucent Technologies Europe. "The implementation of 3G UMTS within the Seville Business & Technology Park will enable business users to access all the applications they normally use at their desk -- from anywhere within the park -- with the same level of security they experience in their office."

The Seville Business and Technology Park is home to over 200 companies hosting approximately 8,000 business professionals and was opened in 1993 as a centre for technological development and innovation. The UMTS network will operate in spectrum provided by Vodafone, and will be supported by the ETICOM (Association of Information Technologies and Telecommunications Firms in Andalusia).

"The commercial deployment of secure high-speed mobile data services within the park will draw new local and international companies to this region," said Miguel Florencio, director of the University of Seville. "High-speed data services will provide the park with significant competitive and technological advantages. We look forward to working with Lucent as we develop our 3G UMTS capabilities."

Lucent also has various UMTS pilot network deployments underway in Europe and North America. Lucent is a leading global provider of mobile networking technologies, having deployed more than 80,000 spread-spectrum base stations for mobile operators worldwide. Spread-spectrum technology is the basis for 3G W-CDMA (UMTS) and CDMA2000 networks.