US Regional carrier C Spire Wireless has selected Alcatel-Lucent to build and deploy the initial phase of its 4G LTE network. The company said that it is investing $60 million for the initial phase of 4G LTE mobile broadband services in 20 Mississippi markets beginning in September covering 2,700 square miles, a population of 1.2 million and more than 360 cell sites.  

C Spire is deploying Alcatel-Lucent’s end-to-end 4G LTE solution, including base stations, IP mobile backhaul for 4G LTE and existing 3G CDMA traffic, Wireless Packet Core (WPC) and a complete IP Multi-Media Subsystem (IMS) network core, which will allow C Spire to develop and offer an increasingly rich portfolio of advanced IP-based services, such as Voice-over-LTE (VoLTE), according to Eric Hollingsworth, vice president of Network Operations for C Spire Wireless.

In addition to the IMS core, C Spire will be using fiber and Ethernet backhaul, at every site and the latest Remote Radio Head (RRH) and four-branch diversity receiver technology for the base stations

According to company, since announcing the initial phase of its LTE plans in early March, C Spire has made significant progress in deploying key elements of its mobile broadband network, including installation and testing of all major core network elements, completion of the second phase of base station equipment installation and integration of Ethernet backhaul at more than 70 percent of the 360 plus cell sites slated for LTE service, according to carrier.