Alcatel-Lucent Enhances its Packet Microwave Transport Offering to Cost-Effectively Support Wireless Broadband Services

CTIA Wireless - LAS VEGAS - Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced the enhancement of its packet microwave radio portfolio with new capabilities to fully leverage fixed and mobile operators’ existing investments in microwave backhaul networks. This enhancement will offer them the added capacity that will be needed to evolve - profitably — to next generation wireless broadband (including LTE).

LTE is a new wireless broadband technology that offers data speeds comparable to the fastest fixed broadband technologies, and offers significantly reduced latency to ensure a high-quality end-user experience for real-time, multimedia services. The anticipated increase in consumer and business use of wireless broadband services with the introduction of LTE networks also is expected to drive the need for expanded backhaul capabilities to deal with the challenge of transporting the resulting data traffic.

To meet this need, Alcatel-Lucent - under a global agreement — will integrate multi-gigabit millimeter wave radios from BridgeWave, the leader in gigabit wireless solutions, into its 9500 Microwave Packet Radio (MPR) transmission solutions. This advancement will expand the frequency range covered by the 9500 MPR with the high-frequency 60-90 GHz spectrum to provide customers up to 2.6 Gbps of capacity, sufficient to support the anticipated transport requirements for 2G, 3G and 4G networks.

“Offering the most cost-effective mobile transport network that maximizes the relationship between cost and capacity is critical to delivering greater profitability for mobile network operators, and a better service experience for end-users,” said Philippe Dumont, head of wireless transmission activities for Alcatel-Lucent. “After an exhaustive evaluation of all millimeter wave solutions on the market, we selected BridgeWave’s gigabit wireless technology due to its superior combination of performance and capacity, as well as its attractive feature set that makes it a perfect complement to our industry-leading microwave transport portfolio.”

“We are proud to collaborate with Alcatel-Lucent, a company with a clear strategic vision for an open LTE ecosystem,” said Amir Makleff, President and CEO at BridgeWave Communications. “Our expertise and leadership in the 80GHz spectrum combined with Alcatel-Lucent’s broad product offering and support organization provides customers with an attractive combination of technology and solutions.”

With these enhancements, Alcatel-Lucent is further enhancing its Mobile Evolution Transport Architecture (META), the industry’s most comprehensive vision for the evolution of mobile networks from TDM to all-IP.

Alcatel-Lucent has historically been a leader in the North American market and has demonstrated this again in 2008 with 34.8 percent market share and the lead position in Q4 2008 (Source: Sky Light Research).

About Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is the trusted partner of service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide, providing solutions to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organization in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 16.98 billion in 2008 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: www.alcatel-lucent.com

Source: Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent Press Contacts: Régine Coqueran, Tel: +33(0)1-40-76-49-24, regine.coqueran at alcatel-lucent.com; Sarah Miller, Tel: +1-613-720-9716, sarah.miller at alcatel-lucent.com. Alcatel-Lucent Investor Relations: Rémi Thomas, Tel: +33(0)1-40-76-50-61, remi.thomas at alcatel-lucent.com; Tom Bevilacqua, Tel: +1-908-582-7998, bevilacqua at alcatel-lucent.com; Tony Lucido, Tel: +33(0)1-40-76-49-80, alucido at alcatel-lucent.com; Don Sweeney, Tel: +1-908-582-6153, dsweeney at alcatel-lucent.com.