LONDON -- Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) today announced that it has been awarded a multi-million Euro contract by Be, a new broadband service provider in the UK. Be will launch a full triple play offering that will initially consist of a 24 Mbit/s Internet service -- the fastest in the UK and three times the speed of the current leading competitor.

Established in October 2004 under the working name Avatar Broadband, Be is leveraging Local Loop Unbundling (LLU) to initiate its highly competitive services. LLU gives access to the incumbent operator’s copper infrastructure but with the freedom for Be to build its own network. Alcatel’s solution, based on the most advanced IP, access and management technologies, will enable Be to offer 24 Mbit/s speeds and will provide extremely cost-efficient backhauling and aggregation for the massive amounts of broadband traffic.

“The Alcatel solution gives us a real advantage over our competitors,” said Be co-founder Boris Ivanovic, who launched a similar service in Sweden after acquiring ISP Bostream. “By working with Alcatel and exploiting its triple play expertise we can deliver the fastest speeds available, with a greater number of features and customer services unmatched by any competitors in the market.”

Alcatel