[Sprint first carrier to deploy Lucent's Flexent CDMA Distributed Base Station offering operators more flexible deployment options.]

Murray Hill, NJ -- Lucent Technologies today introduced a third-generation (3G) CDMA2000 base station that, because of its compact design and distributed architecture, offers the flexibility needed to meet a variety of deployment needs and coverage challenges for mobile operators employing 1900 MHz or PCS (Personal Communications System) spectrum. Sprint has deployed this system, the Lucent Flexent CDMA Enhanced Distributed Base Station (CEDBS).

This platform can be used to simplify deployment in areas difficult to cover with traditional products, fill in coverage gaps, or provide additional capacity in high-traffic areas such as highways, major cities or in buildings. Because it has a small "footprint," and can be mounted on telephone poles, walls and roofs of buildings, the base station can substantially reduce cell site acquisition costs.

"The architecture and design of this system will help us provide coverage in areas where it is difficult to deploy more traditional base stations," said Mike Hennigan, vice president of site development, PCS division of Sprint. "In some instances, we anticipate deploying this base station on utility poles to help us meet stringent zoning requirements."

The Flexent CEDBS's unique design enables mobile operators to deploy the radio frequency units (RFUs), the components of a base station that send and receive radio signals, and power system separately from the base band units (BBUs), the components of a base station that process and send the radio signals to and from the mobile switching center. The RFUs and BBUs can be connected by a customer-provided single-mode fiber cable at distances of up to 15 miles.

For example, in an urban environment, multiple BBUs can be deployed at a company maintenance facility and connected to a mobile switching center via a T1 line, while the RFUs are deployed miles away near major highways, train and bus stations and hospitals and connected to the BBUs via a single-mode fiber cable.

"This system is ideal for large mobile operators that need to expand their existing network coverage, particularly in areas with lower capacity needs, or where site acquisition poses significant challenges," said Mike Iandolo, vice president of CDMA product management and marketing, Lucent Mobility Solutions Group. "Additionally, its flexibility and low-cost makes it suitable for small-to-medium size mobile operators deploying new networks."

The Flexent CEDBS is a three-sector base station with one carrier that supports cdmaOne(tm) and CDMA2000 1X voice and data services. It is generally available in North America with international availability to follow next year.

Improvements Made to Flexent CDMA Distributed Base Station Lucent also is introducing an improvement to its Flexent CDMA Distributed Base Station (CDBS) for 850 MHz. The product can now provide 20 Watts of long-term average power, which can potentially increase coverage. This improved version has recently been deployed in China Unicom's network. The Flexent CDBS is a three-sector base station for 850 and 1900 MHz that can support two carriers and provide cdmaOne and CDMA2000 1X voice and data services.

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