VimpelCom has selected Alcatel-Lucent's technical solution to support the launch of new femtocell based services for Beeline subscribers in the North-Western region of Russia.  This solution extends VimpelCom’s 3G network coverage and capacity into buildings, office blocks and at high-traffic locations where signals provided by the nearest base station tend to be insufficient. 

At present, the service is available to VimpelCom's enterprise customers (under the Beeline Business brand) in St. Petersburg. By the end of September 2011, it will become available to Business-to-Business (B2B) customers of other branches of the company in the North-Western region.

Under the agreement Alcatel-Lucent has provided VimpelCom with its end-to-end Femto-technology based 9360 Small Cell solution, including the 9361 Home Cell, the 9362 Enterprise Cell, the 9364 Metro Cell for outdoor environments and the 9366 Small Cell Gateway. The solution includes a network management system which combines Alcatel-Lucent’s Wireless Management System, Wireless Provisioning System and the Home Device Manager from its Motive Product Division. Alcatel-Lucent is providing full deployment and integration services along with design, installation and commissioning, software integration and project management.

According to Alcatel-Lucent, It has secured 25 commercial deployment agreements so far and conducting more than 20 trials. Commercial contracts include the selection of Alcatel-Lucent by Chunghwa Telecom in Taiwan, Telefonica in Spain, and by Vodafone UK,Vodafone Italy and Vodafone New Zealand as their preferred vendor for the deployment of a nationwide femtocell service.