Dubai, 29 April 2012: Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE:ALU), the leading innovator in the field of networking and communications technology, products and services, will showcase regional projects and communications technology innovations as part of its vision for a connected world at this year's LTE MENA conference in Dubai, 29-30 April 2012.

Marc Kaeumle, Vice President EMEA Wireless Competence Center at Alcatel-Lucent, will be speaking to delegates on day one of the show to address the need to establish the right foundations for LTE in the MENA region. Supporting technology innovations, Alcatel Lucent will update on recently announced partnerships with prominent regional telecoms providers, Etisalat and STC, to strengthen communications platforms across parts of the region with 4G LTE technology deployments.

Alcatel-Lucent has partnered with STC and Etisalat to roll out high-quality, high-speed mobile broadband services to subscribers through the deployment of LTE mobile broadband networks.

"With UAE and KSA having the highest smartphone penetration rates in the region, according to a survey by Arab Advisor's Group, the increased popularity of high end mobile devices has resulted in an increased demand for high speed mobile connections for both business and consumer purposes"says Amr K. El-Leithy, Head of ME, Africa, Turkey and Azerbaijan "Alcatel-Lucent is the trusted provider of end to end LTE solutions and deployment in the world and our presence at LTE MENA is to highlight this leadership to potential customers and bring our solutions to the region. Our partnership with Etisalat and STC has helped us to understand the demands of the region and hence equips us to provide the right customized solutions that will help service providers and entities to realize the needs of their consumers."

Etisalat is one of the ten operators selected worldwide to participate in Alcatel-Lucent's pioneering lightRadioTM Metro Radio Outdoor (MRO) technology trial over an existing 4G LTE network powered by, Alcatel-Lucent. Results from the trial show that service providers who deployed lightRadio MRO in their LTE network saw improvements in the complexity and power consumption of mobile networks that allowed them to achieve cost savings of up to 40% without comprising on the quality and speed of the network and hence making lightRadio MRO a greener and more cost-effective solution for service providers.

STC in partnership with Alcatel-Lucent deployed commercial LTE service to cover 11 major cities in the country, making STC the first service provider in the region to launch the technology massively in the region. The launch of the first 4G LTE wireless network in the country, equipped STC subscribers in the country to enjoy high speed and high quality broadband services for their mobile devices, helping them with activities such as downloads and mobile transfers of high definition videos as well as real time gaming on their mobile devices.

Alcatel-Lucent has established a strong global leadership position in 4G LTE having been selected by 24 customers, including some of the world's largest service providers for commercial deployments, and involvement in over 70+ trials worldwide.