Alcatel-Lucent is teaming up withSHD, a corporate joint venture between SFR and Neuf Cegetel, to supply and install a next-generation WiMAX network in France.

    Alcatel-Lucent will equip the planned sites of SHD's WiMAX network in the Ile-de-France (IDF) and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA) regions by mid-2009. The first sites are already operational in the Paris region due to a pilot network deployed at the end of 2006 and will be operational in the PACA region this summer using the second pilot network deployed by SHD and Alcatel-Lucent.

    The new radio network will use the 3.4 – 3.6 GHz frequency band. It will enable professional and residential subscribers alike to connect to broadband internet in fixed and mobile environments in areas with little or no DSL coverage.