Alcatel-Lucent has won a contract from Italy-based wireless internet access provider Aria to build and maintain a wireless broadband network based on WiMAX 802.16e-2005 technology. Datamonitor estimates the contract to be worth $24m over three years.

Alcatel-Lucent will provide services including network planning and engineering to offer a turnkey WiMAX network, base stations, wireless access controllers, backhaul transport microwave equipment, and an operations and maintenance center.

It will deploy the first 130 sites in Puglia and Veneto regions before the second phase of the project when Aria plans to introduce VoIP and VPN services.

Mario Citelli, chief executive at Aria, said: "We chose Alcatel-Lucent as our technical partner and we are launching our commercial offer at the same time. This agreement will enable us to offer high-quality services thanks to Alcatel-Lucent's large scale project management capabilities and its quick-to-deploy wireless WiMAX."

Source:Datamonitor