Lucent Technologies announced that Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE), the sole telecommunications provider in Costa Rica, has awarded Lucent a contract to deploy elements of Lucent's IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) service architecture and a Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) solution to offer next generation voice and data services.

ICE initially will use the Lucent solutions to provide voice over IP (VoIP) calling, pre-paid services and virtual private networks targeting the international segment for both business and residential customers.

In addition to VoIP services, ICE is preparing to offer its customers a comprehensive set of IP-based services, including high-speed Ethernet connectivity, and the Lucent platform will allow it to rapidly develop and launch these new value added services.

"Lucent's IMS-ready solution will help us reduce the introduction costs and time-to-market for new services by leveraging a common applications infrastructure," said Claudio Bermudez, ICE's Telecommunications Manager. "This initiative is part of our commitment to continue to offer our customer advanced services in a timely and cost-effective manner."

As part of the agreement, Lucent will supply ICE with a comprehensive solution that includes products from Lucent Technologies and partners. Lucent Worldwide Services will provide multivendor network integration services for the project.

"Through this portfolio, Lucent will provide a broad range of Value over IP solutions designed to help ICE to introduce multimedia services that combine voice, data and video capabilities," said Javier Falcon, regional vice president for Lucent Technologies in Latin America.

Lucent's IMS-ready VoIP solution for ICE includes the Lucent Compact Switch, which provides the media gateway and gateway control functions, the Lucent Feature Server, which is an IMS-compliant server that offers call session control and Class 5 telephony applications and the Lucent Communication Manager, a next generation applications web portal solution, and Lucent Ethernet Routers (formerly of Riverstone Networks).

Lucent's solution for ICE also includes technology from Lucent partners, including Juniper Networks' M320 routers, Acme Packet's Net-Net Session Border Controllers, Dorado Software's RedCell MPLS Manager and VPN Service Center, and BayPackets' Agility Platform. Network security features are based on the Lucent VPN Firewall Brick as well as the Lucent Security Management Server (LSMS).

The Lucent Compact Switch permits seamless interaction between IP networks and traditional wireline and wireless networks and can serve as a building block for carriers that choose to migrate to an the IMS architecture.