Alcatel:
Alcatel-Lucent is a global telecommunications corporation, headquartered in Paris, France. It provides telecommunications solutions to service providers, enterprises and governments around the world, enabling these customers to deliver voice, data and video services. The company focuses on fixed, mobile, and converged broadband networking hardware, IP technologies, software, and services. It leverages the technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation and R&D houses in the communications industry. Alcatel-Lucent has operations in more than 130 countries.
The company is under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Ben Verwaayen and the non-executive Chairman of the Board is Phillipe Camus. Verwaayen and Camus joined the company in the third quarter of 2008 after Alcatel-Lucent’s first CEO (Pat Russo) and first Chairman (Serge Tchuruk) resigned[2] . For 2007, the company posted revenues of €17.8 billion and a net loss of €3.52 billion.[3]
[edit] History
Alcatel-Lucent was formed when Alcatel merged with Lucent Technologies on December 1, 2006. However, the company as a whole has been a part of telecommunications industry since the late 19th century. The company has roots in two early telecommunications companies: La Compagnie Générale d'Electricité (CGE) and the Western Electric Manufacturing Company.[4]
Western Electric began in 1869 Elisha Gray and Enos N. Barton started a small manufacturing firm based in Cleveland, Ohio. By 1880, the company had relocated to Chicago, Illinois and become the largest electrical manufacturing company in the U.S. In 1881 the American Bell Telephone Company — founded by Alexander Graham Bell and forerunner of American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) — purchased a controlling interest in Western Electric and made it the exclusive developer and manufacturer of equipment for the Bell telephone companies.[5]
CGE was formed in 1898 by French engineer Pierre Azaria in the Alsace region of France and was a conglomerate involved in industries such as electricity, transportation, electronics and telecommunications. CGE would become a leader in digital communications and would also be known for producing the TGV (train à grande vitesse) high speed trains in France.[6]
Bell Telephone Laboratories was created in 1925 from the consolidation the R&D organizations of Western Electric and AT&T. Bell Labs would make significant scientific advances including: the transistor, the laser, the solar cell battery, the digital signal processor chip and the cellular concept of mobile telephone service. Bell Labs researchers have won 11 Nobel Prizes.[7]
Also in 1925, Western Electric sold its International Western Electric Company subsidiary to ITT Corporation. CGE purchased the telecommunications part of ITT in the mid-1980s.[8]
In 1998 Alcatel Alsthom shifted its focus to the telecommunications industry — spinning off its Alsthom activities and changing the company’s name to Alcatel. AT&T spun off Lucent Technologies in April 1996 with an initial public offering.[9]
Facing intense competition in the telecommunications industry, Alcatel and Lucent Technologies announced plans to merge. At the same time, Alcatel announced that it would swap its shares of Alcatel Alenia Space and Telespazio for €673 million and a 12.1% stake in Thales, a key player in the French defense industry. This increased Alcatel’s stake in Thales to 20.8%.[10]
Alcatel-Lucent acquired Nortel's UMTS radio access business at the end of 2006. During 2007 the company acquired Canadian metro WDM networking supplier Tropic Networks, Inc.; enterprise services gateway products developer NetDevices; IPTV software company Tamblin; and the telecommunications consulting practice Thompson Advisory Group, Inc. Alcatel-Lucent acquired Motive, Inc., a provider of service management software for broadband and mobile data services in 2008.[11]
[edit] Organization
[edit] Offices
- Global executive office:
- Alcatel-Lucent has two regional groups: [12]
- Asia Pacific and Europe, Middle East and Africa
- Americas
[edit] Business groups
- Carrier
- Enterprise
- Services
[edit] Areas of business
Alcatel was mostly well known for its DSL multiplexers, used for high-speed Internet access over ADSL and VDSL, whereas Lucent was well-known for its Class 4 and 5 voice switches (Central Office) and its optical products. Alcatel had over 40% of the world DSLAM market in 2007, with more than 143 million lines shipped and has been evolving this from an ATM-backhauled device to an IP-backhauled device. It has a partnership with Microsoft as of 2004 to provide IPTV services via its TPSDA (Triple Play Services Delivery Architecture) over DSL and using its 7x50 VPLS/MPLS routers and switches to service providers such as AT&T in the United States. It is also a leading provider of optical transmission equipment, especially for submarine communications cable. Genesys, a U.S. subsidiary, is a leading provider of call centre software which operates both with Alcatel-Lucent equipment and 3rd-party equipment. The company is generally organized into carrier, enterprise and services business groups.
[edit] Research
- Bell Labs, a combination of Lucent Technologies's Bell Labs and Alcatel's Research & Innovation[13][14]
[edit] Pending acquisitions
On March 10, 2008, Alcatel-Lucent announced they will acquire privately held consulting firm Reachview Technologies.[15]
[edit] Lawsuits
[edit] Alcatel-Lucent v. Microsoft
-
Lucent Technologies filed suit against Gateway and Dell, claiming they had violated patents on MP3, MPEG and other technologies developed by Bell Labs, a division of predecessor company American Telephone & Telegraph. Microsoft voluntarily joined the lawsuit in April 2003, and Alcatel was added after it acquired Lucent. The case, involving a number of patents, is pending in U.S. District Court in San Diego, California.[when?]
The first part of the case involved two audio coding patents that Alcatel-Lucent claimed were infringed by Microsoft's Windows Media Player application. Alcatel-Lucent won the trial and $1.52 Billion in damages, but the Judge granted[16] Microsoft's motion for judgment and new trial.[17],[18] Alcatel-Lucent says it will appeal.[19]
In the second part of the case, the Judge ruled that Microsoft had not violated Alcatel-Lucent's patents relating to speech recognition and the case was therefore dismissed before going to trial. Alcatel-Lucent intends to appeal.[20][21]
The third part of the case involves several user interface-related patents, is scheduled to begin on May 21.[when?]
Additional patent infringement cases, some filed by Microsoft and some filed by Alcatel-Lucent, are pending across the U.S..
[edit] Alcatel problems and shortcomings
Alcatel is seriously questioned in Costa Rica due to bribes to high ranking government officials particularly in the Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (ICE) -the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity- to persuade them to purchase the country's cellular telephone network from them. The issue is still outstanding in Costa Rica's highest courts and also in United States courts[22] because of violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Also, there are other issues standing due to the low quality of the equipment and signal of the mentioned equipment, thus the contract was ceased and a US $76 million fine is being charged, along with the possibility of forbidding them to participate in future public contracts in Costa Rica.
In mid-2008, Alcatel's contact for maintenance of the Costa Rican GSM network was revoked by ICE due to repeated failure of Alcatel to meet its contractual obligations. The network has never performed to specification.[23]
[edit] Corporate image
The logo of the company was designed by the Madrid office of Landor Associates and the corporate image and advertising is managed by the Paris-based advertising agency, Euro RSCG.[24]
The logo vaguely represents A and L which stand for Alcatel and Lucent and also symbolizes infinity. According to their website,[25] "It symbolizes infinity. It implies movement. Its colour combines the stability of blue with the energy of red".
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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