Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) is now the supplier of reference for LTE metro cells that are integrated with Wi-Fi under Vodafone's $12 billion (£7 million) Project Spring network investment and upgrade plan.
Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC), Nokia (NYSE:NOK), Huawei and Samsung were previously selected as Project Spring infrastructure vendors. As such, Alcatel-Lucent's outdoor small cells, or metro cells, will have to interoperate with other vendors' infrastructure equipment. The Franco-American vendor noted Vodafone's decision to add Alcatel-Lucent devices to the mix signifies the operator's commitment to developing multi-vendor heterogeneous networks (HetNets).
As supplier of reference, Alcatel-Lucent can bid on business in all Vodafone countries with its metro cell products. The vendor noted it already provides residential and enterprise small cells to multiple Vodafone properties. For more, see this release.