Alcatel-Lucent and YooMee Africa join forces

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) will enable YooMee Africa to expand into new African market by offering TDD LTE ultra-broadband wireless access to West and Central Africa..

YooMee - previously known as 4G Africa - provides high-speed reliable internet access and value added services to residences and businesses customers throughout sub-Saharan Africa. LTE is the best choice for YooMee to build wireless broadband networks as it is the latest worldwide standard to offer mobile internet services replacing technologies like WiMAX.

Key facts:

• YooMee has targeted deploying TDD LTE in its new markets within the next six months.
  
• The operator expects to build out in average 35 to 50 sites per capital city before deploying in remaining cities of the countries it operates in.
  
• Alcatel-Lucent will deploy a complete end-to-end TDD LTE solution consisting of eNBs, Wireless Backhaul and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC).
  
• Alcatel-Lucent will also provide professional services such as network planning, pre-launch optimisation, network integration, and start-up assistance services to accompany YooMee with its commercial rollout
  
• This agreement with YooMee is another example of the growing momentum of TDD LTE technology and further underlines Alcatel-Lucent's commitment and success to the technology
  
• Alcatel-Lucent currently has more than 40 LTE and 55 small cells networks globally.
  
•  TDD LTE is a key element of The Shift Plan, Alcatel-Lucent's industrial strategy to become a specialist vendor of IP Networking and Ultra-Broadband Access.

Dov Bar-Gera, CEO of YooMee Africa, said: "YooMee is committed to helping eliminate the digital divide in Africa and providing ultra-broadband accessibility as the means to accomplishing that goal. In addition to our efforts in Cameroon,we plan to deploy TDD LTE in other countries in which YooMee is holding the relevant licenses in the coming years. Our work at the University of Douala giving 70,000 students and faculty access to broadband internet at very affordable rates is another indicator of our commitment to improving the quality of life in Africa by overcoming the digital divide."

Daniel Jaeger, vice-president of Alcatel-Lucent in Africa said: "The choice of Alcatel-Lucent by YooMee confirms our leadership in LTE and specifically our market leadership in Africa. We have shown that we can adapt to the different requirements of service providers in Africa by offering the products, services and expertise to meet their need. This solution leverages both our Wireless and our IP leadership capabilities to provide exactly what YooMee needed for their plans. We look forward to working alongside YooMee as they expand ultra-broadband service in Sub-Saharan Africa."