Alcatel-Lucent, a forefront global communications firm, announced Thursday it will enable YooMee Africa, the leading high-speed Internet service provider in Cameroon, to expand into new African market by offering TDD LTE ultra-broadband wireless access.
YooMee – previously known as 4G Africa – provides high-speed Internet access and value added services to residences and businesses customers throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
“LTE is the best choice for YooMee to build wireless broadband networks as it is the latest worldwide standard to offer mobile internet services replacing technologies like WiMAX,” said Alcatel-Lucent in a press statement made available to PANA here.
According to the Paris-based firm, YooMee has targeted deploying TDD LTE in its new markets within the next six months, and build out in average 35 to 50 sites per capital city before deploying in remaining cities of the countries it operates in.
Alcatel-Lucent said it would deploy a complete end-to-end TDD LTE solution consisting of eNBs, Wireless Backhaul and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), in addition to providing professional services such as network planning, pre-launch optimisation, network integration, and start-up assistance services to accompany YooMee with its commercial rollout.
“This agreement with YooMee is another example of the growing momentum of TDD LTE technology and further underlines Alcatel-Lucent’s commitment and success to the technology,” said the statement. “Alcatel-Lucent currently has more than 40 LTE and 55 small cells networks globally.”
Dov Bar-Gera, Chief Executive Officer of YooMee Africa, said : “YooMee is committed to helping eliminate the digital divide in Africa and providing ultra-broadband accessibility as the means to accomplishing that goal.
“In addition to our efforts in Cameroon, we plan to deploy TDD LTE in other countries in which YooMee is holding the relevant licences in the coming years.
“Our work at the University of Douala giving 70,000 students and faculty access to broadband internet at very affordable rates is another indicator of our commitment to improving the quality of life in Africa by overcoming the digital divide.”
YooMee Africa (previously named 4G Africa) was founded in 2009 by a team of telecom entrepreneurs who throughout their careers have successfully built four telecommunications companies in developed and emerging markets.
The company employs around 100 professionals in Africa and its management is recruited locally in the countries of operation.
