East Brunswick, New Jersey and Rio de Janeiro, April 17: The Aricent Group, a global high-value innovation and technology services company, today announced that their partner CPqD, one of Latin America's leading Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) R&D institutions, is starting field trials of its LTE eNodeB, which is powered by Aricent's eNodeB software framework. CPqD is conducting the field trial for one of the largest operators in Brazil.

The Aricent-CPqD LTE eNodeB solution features comprehensive LTE functionality and comprises layer 2 and layer 3 eNodeB software from Aricent. The solution, operational on the 450 MHz band, is compliant with the guidelines laid down by the Brazilian regulation agency ANATEL.

The Brazilian regulatory rules defined that by December 31, 2015, all rural areas up to 30 km from the headquarters of all Brazilian municipalities must have LTE coverage in the 450 MHz band with voice and data services.

"Field trials are one of the most critical phases in a product lifecycle to determine the viability and usability of the solution," said Pratyush Dasgupta vice president and head of wireless practice, at Aricent. "We are committed to providing all the support necessary to ensure that the LTE solution performs exceptionally well when deployed commercially."

"LTE has a tremendous growth potential in Brazil and is the most important focus area for CPqD" said Fabrício Lira Figueiredo, from CPqD. "We are delighted in continuing our partnership with Aricent in this space to ensure that we provide the best possible solution to our customers."

Brazil is the reference concerning LTE 450 MHz development and CPqD and its industrial partner WxBR are fundamental pieces to deploy such technology in rural area. "LTE is the most advanced broadband wireless technology and we are the pioneer in providing a complete LTE solution for 450 MHz band," said Samuel Lauretti, president of WxBR.

Aricent is a leader in providing LTE software solutions with more than 50 global LTE engagements, they have made investments in cutting edge technologies such as SON, VoLTE, RRM and LTE-A. Aricent's software has been commercially deployed in some of the most demanding markets in the world.