Alcatel-Lucent gets WIMAX Certification

Paris, September 4, 2008 — Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced that it has been awarded the WiMAX Forum Certified seal of approval for its WiMAX 802.16e Compact Base Station at 2.5GHz. This achievement further confirms Alcatel-Lucent’s leadership in WiMAX and its commitment to accelerate the development of a global and open WiMAX™ eco-system.

Alcatel-Lucent’s infrastructure portfolio is made up of products that strictly comply with the 802.16e-2005 standard (also called Rev-e), which supports fixed, nomadic and mobile services. The company’s “Open CPE Program” is helping to accelerate the availability of terminals by encompassing comprehensive interoperability testing programs with WiMAX chipset and end-user device suppliers.

This significant milestone is also the first step toward the certification of the company’s entire portfolio of WiMAX solutions already available in other licensed frequency bands and deployed in several networks worldwide, including some in commercial service today in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Alcatel-Lucent expects its 3.5GHz equipment to be WiMAX Forum Certified by end of 2008.

“Alcatel-Lucent is proud to receive the WiMAX Forum Certified designation, which acknowledges the development efforts we have made over the last four years,” said Karim El Naggar, Vice President and head of Alcatel-Lucent’s WiMAX activities. “Customers can be confident that Alcatel-Lucent’s WiMAX solution complies with the most stringent requirements of the standard and smoothly interoperates with any WiMAX Forum Certified device.”

Karim El Naggar pointed out that, unique in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent systematically guarantees strict alignment of features and compliance at 2.3, 2.5 and 3.5GHz, as part of its global mobile WiMAX™ strategy.He noted that with 30 commercial contracts and more than 70 trials around the world, ”Alcatel-Lucent is the undisputed leader in the WiMAX market,” he said.

Currently the WiMAX Forum has more than 530 member companies including service providers, regulators, equipment vendors, chip vendors and content providers. Alcatel-Lucent is a member of the WiMAX Forum board.

“The first series of Mobile WiMAX certifications by the WiMAX Forum represent a critical milestone for the WiMAX industry as it will further accelerate the availability of interoperable solutions and ensure widespread adoption and deployment of WiMAX technology and products,” said Ron Resnick, President of the WiMAX Forum. “Alcatel-Lucent is playing a key role in taking that important step with the WiMAX Forum, enabling the global WiMAX community to benefit from fully interoperable infrastructures and devices.”

To earn this certification, Alcatel-Lucent’s 802.16e WiMAX products underwent rigorous and extensive series of tests by the WiMAX Forum's lead certification laboratory partner, AT4 wireless, spanning protocol conformance, radio conformance and interoperability testing.

“Achieving Mobile WiMAX certification is the result of the teamwork between leading wireless companies and our lab people, the most experienced in WiMAX certification testing world-wide. That is why AT4 wireless would like to thank Alcatel-Lucent for its key contribution towards putting in place the necessary process and tools,” said Fernando E. Hardasmal, Deputy General Director at AT4 wireless.

In addition to being a board member of the WiMAX Forum, Alcatel-Lucent is a founding member of the Open Patent Alliance formed by key industry players to advance WIMAX 4G technology.

Huawei attacks the European market

Huawei Technologies, the China telecommunications equipment maker, is to step up sales efforts in Europe in a move that will raise pressure on western rivals.

Zhou Ming Cheng, Huawei's European marketing director, told the Financial Times the group had achieved sales of $2bn (£1bn) in Europe in 2007, up from $770m in 2006.

Mr Zhou said Huawei aimed to lift European sales this year, implying it was seeking to raise market share at the expense of rivals Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Nokia Siemens Networks.

Huawei's aggressive overseas drive is putting pressure on Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens, which reported losses last year, and Ericsson, which saw net income fall.

"I do believe that in the coming few years we are still growing very fast here," Mr Zhou said.

"The European market is one of the biggest in the world - very strategic to the company. So we put more investment in and we believe we will have a better and better position here."

He claimed that the 2006 merger between Alcatel and Lucent and the joint venture between Nokia and Siemens had given Huawei sales opportunities because fixed-line phone and mobile operators did not want to be dependent on a restricted range of equipment suppliers.

During the past two years, Huawei has been winning wireless infrastructure contracts with European mobile operators by edging out Alcatel-Lucent, Eric-sson and Nokia Siemens.

Vincent Rech, an analyst at Société Générale, pointed to contracts won by Huawei in 2007 with Vodafone in Greece, Romania and Spain; France Telecom in Belgium and France; and Telefónica in Germany. The contracts underline how Huawei is moving beyond China and other emerging markets.

But while it is enjoying growing success in Europe, Huawei has made limited progress in the US. Mr Zhou said sales of $100m were achieved in the US in 2007.

The 2007 annual report of Huawei, which is not a public company, said it generated revenue of $12.6bn and net income of $673.5m.

Mr Zhou played down suggestions by rivals that it was aggressive in its pricing of contracts so as to win orders.

He described Huawei as a private company and denied it received financial support from the Chinese government.