Alcatel-Lucent preps SMB push
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(InfoWorld) - Alcatel-Lucent SA is preparing to extend its combined telephony and e-mail offering for small business customers to the U.S. later this year. The offering will be built on the OmniPCX Office telephony server and the Eye-Box, an e-mail and groupware server that also hosts Web-based services for remote workers. Both are aimed at small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) and are based on the Linux operating system. "We need to start to enter the SME sector in the U.S.," said Alcatel-Lucent's Tom Burns, general manager of the company's enterprise network infrastructure business, speaking at the Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise Forum in Paris this week. Burns said he would work with the Alcatel-Lucent sales teams that have been collaborating with Verizon Communications Inc. to develop an offering based on OmniPCX Office to complement Verizon's IP (Internet Protocol) edge routers. "I hope to see some of this coming to fruition toward the end of this year," he said. The OmniPCX Office, offering VOIP (voice over IP) and circuit-switched telephony services, voicemail and other services is already doing well in Asia, Australia and China, Burns said. And not just in Asia: it's selling in Europe too. MGCE, a French wholesaler of Alcatel-Lucent equipment exhibiting at the Forum, has been selling the OmniPCS Office/Eye-Box bundle for some months. The 14-person company uses it internally, too, said company representative Ousamma Tazi. The Eye-Box comes in two versions: the Compact Edition, licensed for up to 25 users, and the Premium Edition, for up to 300 users. They differ in their processor power and the capacity of their hard disks. The Eye-box can deliver e-mail and calendar information in two ways: either through Microsoft Corp.'s Outlook client, or via a Web interface. Via its Web interface, mobile workers can consult their voicemail or reroute calls on their office line to their mobile phone. Alcatel-Lucent only sells the communications bundle to SMEs through resellers, who can also advise the end-user on telecommunications services. Before its merger with Lucent Technologies Inc., Alcatel SA was involved in selling a similar bundle of unified communications hardware and services with France TÃ©lÃ©com SA and Hewlett-Packard Co., under the name ReadyOffice. However, that offering sank without a trace. Alcatel-Lucent sees great potential for VOIP in the SME market. While around 70 percent of its switchboard sales to large customers are based on IP technology, the figure is only 10 percent in the SME market, said Philippe Mielle, director of the French regional support center for the company's enterprise business group. Given that OmniPCX Office and the Eye-Box are both Linux-based, Mielle and others at Alcatel-Lucent expect to see the two combined into a single box offering telephony, e-mail and mobility services some time next year.
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Faster ADSL2+ service promises 8M to 15Mbps of dedicated Internet access in 11 markets.
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The job cuts are in addition to 12,500 cuts announced in February. Together, they amount to 20 percent of the work force of Alcatel and Lucent when they combined.
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Baby version of big core switches. Alcatel reckons it's time that 10Gig Ethernet reached the wiring closet, and has extended its Omniswitch 9000 series with a low-end five-slot chassis able to support up to 24 10Gig ports, 96 1Gig ports, or a combination thereof.â¦
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Alcatel-Lucent reported higher sales but a net loss for the fourth quarter due to a big writedown in its CDMA (code division multiple access) and IP (Internet protocol) multimedia services businesses.The company said revenue rose 18 percent to &#8364;5.2 billion on the back of strong performance at several of its major business units. But despite the stronger sales the company saw its net profit plunge into the red to the tune of &#8364;2.6 billion. This was largely due to the &#8364;2.5 billion writedown.Its wireline and wireless carrier business was strong and revenues were &#8364;3.7 billion in the quarter against &#8364;3.2 billion during the same period a year earlier. The company benefited from strong growth in carrier-type optical networking, and the GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and WCDMA (Wideband CDMA) sectors. Broadband access revenue fell on the back of a decline in the number of DSL lines delivered.Revenues were up 27 percent in the services business to &#8364;1 billion after the company won large network operations contracts and worked on IPTV and IP network integration projects. Its enterprise business segment saw revenues of &#8364;435 million, up about 4 percent, thanks to strong momentum in Europe and Asia.The report came with bad news for investors. The company suspended its dividend payment for 2007 &quot;in the light of these results and or a more uncertain market outlook,&quot; it said.&quot;We just thought very plainly that it was good financial discipline looking at both our net income in &#39;07 and the very tough macroeconomic environment,&quot; said Hubert de Pesquidoux, chief financial officer, on a conference call.CEO Patricia Russo warned that the company doesn&#39;t have a positive short-term outlook, particularly with a looming recession in the U.S. given Alcatel-Lucent&#39;s dependance on business there.&quot;There is a level of uncertainty ... that leaves a lot unknown,&quot; Russo said.Despite interest in IP networking and 3G broadband services, growth over the next year is likely to be flat or just slightly up, Russo said. Taking into account currency differences, the market will likely be down, she said.Some customers are also pursuing network-sharing arrangements, which could affect how much those companies spend on their own infrastructure, she said.Russo defended the&#160;2006 merger of Alcatel and Lucent&#160;and said the company is still trying to reduce costs. So far, about 6,700 employees have been let go in&#160;a restructuring plan&#160;that will shed a total of 12,500 employees, she said.
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InfoWorld - Sprint-Nextel and Alcatel-Lucent plan to introduce Wednesday a mobile data card that doubles as a laptop security mechanism.
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PARIS, February 27  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) and E-Plus announced today that the world's leading network integrator will be managing several network business divisions of Germany's third-largest mobile communications provider, E-Plus Mobilfunk.
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Alcatel and Lucent shareholders today approved the merger of the two companies, clearing one of the last major hurdles for the corporate marriage.
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Felix Geisendorfer has an interesting little solution posted to his blog today for those wanting to sync a Subversion repository over to a remote FTP folder without having to mess with external software (well, besides CakePHP, that is).   As the headline says, this time it's going to be my SVN/FTP Deployment Task written for the new Bake in CakePHP 1.2. It will not work with the Cake 1.1.x.x branch, and I currently do not have time to explain the procedure to work around this.   The key, in fact, is the new Bake that's included with this new version.  When combined with the code it will push the contents of the directory out to the remote server. There's even some included code to make a pseudo-install to your remote server.
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(InfoWorld) - A European Commission plan to simplify the licensing of Europe-wide mobile satellite services could boost the nascent market for broadcast TV services over handheld devices. With a general agreement on theÂ DVB-H (digital video broadcasting - handheld) standardÂ now in place, mobile operators across Europe are looking for economic ways of launching broadcast mobile TV services that send signals directly to handsets. While some companies plan to invest in building terrestrial systems to carry the signals, others are more interested in establishing mobile satellite services to provide coverage in not one but several markets, according to the Commission. With its one-stop-shop proposal, the Commission hopes to overcome a current hurdle in Europe for providing satellite service: operators need to apply for a license in each individual country, which often have different regulations and requirements. A new body, organized by the Commission in cooperation with regulators in the member states, would be responsible for assessing applications based on common technical and commercial criteria and for selecting operators, which would then be authorized by national regulators. The Commission hopes to win support for the new mobile satellite communications authority later this year when the region's telecommunications policy comes up for review. Several European mobile phone companies, including Vodafone Group, have expressed interest in mobile satellite technology for TV service as well as broadband data. In addition to reaching consumers in rural areas and in more than one national market, satellite-to-mobile phone communications could also overcome Europe's tight spectrum availability. Alcatel-Lucent, for instance, proposes using the widely available S-Band frequency reserved for satellites to transmit broadcast signals via satellite to mobile phones based on the DVB-H standard, instead of the UHF band. The UHF band is typically used for TV transmissions in Europe but has little or no capacity to spare. The Alcatel-Lucent proposal calls for equipping base stations with S-Band repeaters and, in addition, using satellites capable of transmitting in the S-Band to deliver content to 3G (third-generation) phones enabled with DVB-H technology in three different ways: base-station streaming, base-station broadcasting and satellite broadcasting.
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(InfoWorld) - Sun MicrosystemsÂ is going to where the carriers are to unveil new features on its platform for mobile content delivery platform. On Monday, the company is set to announce enhancements to its Sun Java System Content Delivery Server (CDS) at the International Telecommunication Union's Telecom World show in Hong Kong. Organizers expect as many as 57,000 attendees from around the world at the week-long show, which takes place once every three years. Mobile operators looking at big bills for 3G (third-generation) networks and shrinking revenue from voice minutes want to offer subscribers something new that they'll pay extra for. Sun is one of many vendors promising to help them get new money-making services up and attracting users. Sun's CDS provides a common infrastructure for delivering all types of content, including Java applications, games, ringtones and wallpaper. It also lets operators create storefronts, viral marketing tools and payment systems. It lets the carriers and other content providers set up services more easily and quickly, the company said. Among the new features coming at Telecom World is the Central Device Catalog, which lets carriers quickly aggregate content from various sources for a new device and then collect records of downloads. This lets the operator view usage patterns and segment customers, directing new content to the appropriate group. Also at the show, Sun plans to announce that Telefonica Moviles Espana and Taiwan's Chunghwa Telecom have chosen Sun Fire servers and the Solaris 10 operating system to deliver services to their customers. The show will also be a coming-out party for an alliance Sun announced last week with Nokia and Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson. In the Telecommunications Platform Initiative, the companies will jointly develop requirements for a standardized, integrated telecommunications platform. If network equipment providers follow a common set of open standards in their products, it will be easier for carriers to integrate gear from different suppliers and ultimately get revenue-producing services out more quickly, Sun said. Sun and other members of the initiative will continue to work with other groups that set telecommunications computing standards, such as PICMG (PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group), the company said
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VALENCIA, Spain, June 1  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Vodafone and Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced a cooperation agreement to deliver the award-winning America's Cup Live Sailing service developed by Alcatel-Lucent in Vodafone's mobile portal.
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Costly woes continue Alcatel-Lucent has admitted its outlook is dire after it disclosed it would be writing down $4.3bn of assets.â¦
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(InfoWorld) - Shareholders of Alcatel SA and Lucent Technologies Inc. approved the companies' merger plansÂ Thursday, clearing one of the last hurdles to a mammoth consolidation in the communications equipment business. The merger scraped by at Lucent's special shareholder meeting Thursday in Wilmington, Delaware. It required 50 percent of the vote and received 51.97 percent, according to spokesman John Skalko. Alcatel, meeting in Paris, required a two-thirds vote of shareholders. All resolutions related to the merger were approved by at least 85 percent of the Alcatel shareholders who voted, said Alcatel spokesman Charlie Guyer. The two networking and telecommunications equipment manufacturers announced their intention to merge in April. The combined entity will have annual revenue of around â¬21 billion (US$25 billion), based on the companies' 2005 financial results. Lucent Chief Executive Officer Patricia Russo will become CEO of the combined company, which is to be called Alcatel Lucent, while Alcatel CEO Serge Tchuruk will become a non-executive chairman. Lucent, based in Murray Hill, New Jersey, is incorporated in Delaware. The merged company will be based in Paris, Alcatel's hometown. Alcatel and Lucent expect that the merged entity will make annual cost savings of about â¬1.4 billion, around half of that from job cuts. They plan to cut 9,000 from their combined payroll of 88,000. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission approved the deal in June, and the European Commission gave its consent in July. The largest remaining obstacle is convincing the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. that the deal presents no threat to national security. To allay such fears, Lucent will set up a separate subsidiary run by U.S. citizens to handle sensitive research and development work for the U.S. government, while in France, Alcatel agreed to sell its satellite business to French aerospace electronics group Thales SA for similar reasons. The proposed deal has run into opposition from some investment companies and shareholders. Lucent announced on Friday it had settled two shareholder lawsuits that could have delayed Thursday's vote. Shares of both companies have fallen from their April levels, though they have made some gains in the past few weeks.
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Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) announced today that it will equip railways in the southern region of Romania with its innovative electronic interlocking solutions to ensure safe and controlled train ...
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Massachusetts lawmakers expressed disappointment that telecommunications equipment company Alcatel - Lucent plans to close its North Andover plant in 2008. The politicians said they would use federal resources to help retrain Lucent workers and assist them in finding new jobs. "It's always disappointing when high-paying, quality manufacturing jobs disappear from an area with great employment needs, such as ...
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French-American telecoms equipment group  Alcatel-Lucent  said on Monday it had won a contract  from Germany&#39;s VSE NET to build the country&#39;s &quot;first  commercial&quot; WiMAX network in the Saar region bordering France.