First Test Worldwide using the DVB-SH Standard and 3G Infrastructure

Europe France : : Alcatel-Lucent announced that it is performing a technical test of its solution for broadcast mobile TV using the DVB-SH standard in the S-Band (2.2GHz). This pilot will take place from June to September 2007 in the South-West part of France. Using SFR's operational 3G mobile infrastructure and pre-commercial DVB-SH elements for the broadcast part, this field trial represents a world first, only four months after the DVB project approved the technical specifications of the DVB-SH standard.

The DVB-SH standard is at the basis of Alcatel-Lucent's "Unlimited Mobile TV solution", a hybrid satellite and terrestrial solution whose objective is to propose a broadcast solution for a mass market mobile TV service.

This pilot will allow to evaluate the capability of this solution to make available to a large audience high-quality mobile TV channels, in various usage conditions such as inside and outside buildings, as well as while moving onboard a vehicle. Several innovative technical characteristics related to DVB-SH will be evaluated during this pilot, either separately or in a combination.

Jean-Dominique Pit, Director Strategy and Innovation at SFR, declared: "SFR has always stood at the forefront of innovation in order to provide all its clients with the most attractive mobile services. This is why we wished to evaluate the hybrid technology proposed by Alcatel-Lucent based on the new DVB-SH standard specified by the DVB Project, in just the same way as we had tested the DVB-H standard last year. These technologies, which are recommended at national and European levels, seem to us interesting to evaluate, considering the growing success encountered by mobile TV among our customers."

Olivier Coste, Chairman of Alcatel-Lucent's Mobile Broadcast activities added: "This DVB-SH pilot with SFR illustrates the growing interest that Alcatel-Lucent's Unlimited Mobile TV solution generates among the European operators wishing to take the best advantage from the business potential of mass market mobile TV. Allowing to best reuse the existing 3G infrastructures, our solution in the S-Band really combines economical efficiency for the operator and innovative service for the end-user."

Alcatel-Lucent is committed to supporting service providers in delivering a truly converged TV experience. The company has already established a leading position in interactive TV services, and already enables TV, video and music services for more than 120 fixed and mobile service providers around the world.

Alcatel-Lucent's Unlimited Mobile TV solution is supported by the French Agency for Industrial Innovation (AII).

Description of the pilot The pilot will use pre-commercial low-power terrestrial repeaters for the broadcast part, co-localized with several SFR's 3G operational sites. The broadcast signal from a satellite will be emulated by a transmitter located in a high-altitude helicopter perceived as a fixed point. The mobile terminals used will be pre-commercial terminals provided by Sagem and Samsung Electronics offering an improved reception quality thanks to the antenna diversity related to the use of the S-Band (2.2GHz).