Alcatel-Lucent has landed a $52 million deal with China Mobile subsidiary China Mobile Pakistan Limited (CMPak) to expand its existing GSM/EDGE network in northern Pakistan by the end of the first quarter of 2009.

The deal will help CMPak increase network capacity and coverage in the region. The company also will receive network integration services and project management and maintenance services aimed at lowering network operation costs. CMPak will get Alcatel-Lucent’s latest base station controller platform, TWIN transceivers and microwave transport solutions.

Alcatel-Lucent also announced that it was adding an energy-efficient, CDMA- and LTE-compatible base station platform to its converged radio access network portfolio. The 9238 Base Station Macro’s platform allows CDMA or LTE baseband units to be mixed and matched in the same cabinet, and the company claims that it can reduce power consumption by 75 percent over earlier generations of equipment. The 9238, like other products in the converged RAN portfolio, relies on software-defined radio technology that lets CDMA providers upgrade to next-generation standards in the future or simultaneously introduce technologies.