Huawei wins Algeria’s Houari Boumediene Airport bid for eLTE's first airport application in Africa

[Algiers, Algeria, July 5, 2016] Huawei announces the successful bid in the eLTE broadband trunking project for the Houari Boumediene Airport in Algiers, the Algerian capital. Houari Boumediene Airport will be the first airport commercial deployment of an eLTE system in Africa.

Terms of the project call for Huawei to provide an eLTE core network, base stations, trunking terminals, multimedia dispatching, and other devices and systems, to meet the customer's extended requirements in airport trunking, video, and data services.

The Houari Boumediene Airport handles 10 million passengers annually, and can no longer adapt to the growing number of passengers. The Algerian government is now constructing a new terminal building, raising the airport's annual capacity to 14 million. Once construction is completed, Houari Boumediene Airport will become a flight hub in the Mediterranean region and in the near future will be able to better handle the large and growing number of passengers visiting the Great Mosque of Algiers, the world’s third largest mosque.

Now, the airport uses the TETRA system for routine scheduling and dispatch. This narrowband system is insufficient for broadband data transmission, mobile video surveillance, or multimedia dispatch. Ground handling services are performed in a complicated and noisy environment, making voice dispatch error-prone and increasing security risks. The airport requires a system that integrates multimedia trunking dispatch, video surveillance, and broadband data transmission and that is capable of interworking with the existing TETRA system to improve the accuracy and efficiency of ground dispatch.

Huawei provides an eLTE broadband trunking solution tailored to meet the airport’s needs. Professional multimedia trunking dispatch, video surveillance, and airport-relevant applications are carried on one single network that covers both indoor and outdoor working areas for the ground staff. This real-time, large-bandwidth, and highly reliable ground service dispatch platform significantly improves the airport's operation efficiency. To cope with noise in the airport, the eLTE broadband trunking solution supports throat vibration Mic earpieces, noise-cancelling headphones, and additional accessories to guarantee voice trunking performance in complex surroundings. eLTE can offer complete video dispatch and real-time monitoring services through backhaul of onsite images to the command center. In addition, eLTE provides open eSDK for interconnection with third-party airport applications.

At the end of Q1 2016, Huawei had successfully signed 180 eLTE network contracts and deployed 84 commercial eLTE networks, ranking first in the world. The Huawei eLTE solution has been successfully applied in multiple airports, including Zhengzhou Xinzheng International Airport, Xi'an Xianyang International Airport, Chongqing Jiangbei International Airport, Nanning Wuxu International Airport, and Sanya Phoenix International Airport in Hainan.