Telecom operator Etisalat announced that the company has signed an agreement with Alcatel-Lucent on February 15, 2011 for LTE (Long Term Evolution) deployment in UAE (United Arab Emirates), according to a press release by Alcatel-Lucent. Construction of the LTE network is slated to start within the first quarter of 2011. Etisalat's LTE is expected to be the first commercial LTE network in the Middle East. It is reported that Etisalat's LTE deployment plan is aimed to tap surging demand for data roaming traffic caused by Smartphone popularity in the region.