Alcatel-Lucent claims that it has successfully conducted what it says is the world’s first LTE data call in the 800 MHz band, the digital dividend band in Europe. The company made the call at its solution centre in Stuttgart, Germany.

“This is a major breakthrough on our path to become the first vendor to offer a commercial solution for the ´Digital Dividend` spectrum”, said Ken Wirth, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s LTE/4G Solutions. “Our goal is to quickly and effectively support operators in their plans to further enhance the availability of broadband services all over the region, so we adapted our LTE solution to the 800 MHz frequency band quite early on and we are now working with customers on field trials.”

Europe is in the process of making use of the digital dividend band with spectrum in the 800 MHz band to be made available soon for commercial use.