Lucent Technologies and Sun Microsystems Demonstrate Technology that can Dramatically Simplify End-User Access to Converged Services

Demonstration at CTIA is part of broader effort to implement single sign-on for multiple services

APRIL 05, 2006, LAS VEGAS – Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) today announced that it is working with Sun Microsystems on the development of a solution to significantly simplify subscribers’ access to wireline and wireless services whether they are based on web, mobile telephony, IPTV or IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) architectures. The companies are demonstrating a prototype solution in Lucent’s booth (#1806, Hall C3) here at the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) Wireless 2006 show.

The Lucent and Sun collaboration is one of three activities Lucent is announcing that help carriers provide an individual with one-stop, rapid, secure access to multiple services. The others are Lucent’s Bell Labs research and development work in this area and Lucent participation in a new industry partnership for single sign-on with mobile phones.

The Lucent and Sun Microsystems demonstration will illustrate the delivery of profile data from an operator to a third party -- enabling a subscriber to securely access free or premium third-party services such as traffic reports, sports highlights and banking, all with a single sign-on. Today, individuals frequently must memorize multiple passwords, execute multiple steps or, at multiple web sites, enter the same profile data to access services.

The demonstration highlights two key capabilities that together can significantly improve access to services - standards-based identity federation and user-controlled data sharing. Identity federation is the sharing of a subscriber’s identity with support for secure one-step authentication for multiple services. User-controlled data sharing refers to carriers giving the individuals the ability to authorize the sharing of profile data (such as current location or previously stored preferences) between services and/or service providers.

Lucent and Sun are showing standards-based identity federation as established by the Liberty Alliance Project, a global alliance of companies, non-profit and government organizations developing open standards for federated network identity, interoperable strong authentication and Web services.

“Telecomm operators with their unique position of trust, relationship and stickiness with the customer are well positioned to be Liberty Alliance compliant Identity Providers,” said J.J. Lhospital, vice president of product management, Lucent Technologies applications group. “Lucent’s data federation solution enables operators to generate additional revenue by leveraging network data and new applications.”

The Lucent and Sun Microsystem products being demonstrated include: Lucent Datagrid™ software, a data integration middleware that is a part of the Lucent Bell Labs Service Enhancement Technology; the Lucent USDS, a data server platform supporting the Home Location Register (HLR), Home Subscriber Server (HSS) and Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) functions; the Sun Java™ System Federation Manager Java ™ and Java ME technologies.

“We are very excited to work with Lucent to integrate Sun’s market-leading Identity Management Suite with Lucent’s market-leading IMS assets. Our integrated solution showcased at CTIA demonstrates how service providers could increase average revenue per user through new federated data services that leverage both the IMS and Liberty Alliance standards,” said Darrell Jordan-Smith, vice president, Global Telco Industries, Sun Microsystems. “We look forward to working with Lucent and Bell Labs to deliver a solution to the market as well as continuing our collaborative work on R&D engagements in the IMS space.”

Also announced at CTIA, Lucent is participating in a new industry partnership that will promote the use of SIM card technology in mobile phones, along with the Liberty Alliance single sign-on framework, to provide simple, cost effective, secure and user-friendly authentication for web services and transactions (see separate release from SIM group).

In addition, Lucent’s Bell Labs, to complement industry standards work in the mobility and web segments, is focused on extending identity federation across wireline, wireless, IMS, web and cable services.

“Work is well under way in industry bodies on standards. Organizations such as the Liberty Alliance Project are developing a framework to ensure secure authentication and data sharing in connection with using web-level services, while keeping end-user effort to a minimum. 3GPP is developing complimentary standards for mobile networks,” said Rick Hull, Lucent Bell Labs Director of Network Data and Services Research. “Bell Labs is working to combine these frameworks to fit the needs of today’s wireline, wireless, cable, and converged telecomm service providers and their customers.”

Bell Labs is focused on several areas such as simplified single sign-on support for mobile phone users, and for multiple users of a shared device (e.g., an IPTV), enabling users to authenticate and access their services from another person’s device, and secure, user-controlled, targeted sharing of profile data in a manner that is highly scalable and enables a quick response.

About Lucent Technologies
Lucent Technologies designs and delivers the systems, services and software that drive next-generation communications networks. Backed by Bell Labs research and development, Lucent uses its strengths in mobility, optical, software, data and voice networking technologies, as well as services, to create new revenue-generating opportunities for its customers, while enabling them to quickly deploy and better manage their networks. Lucent’s customer base includes communications service providers, governments and enterprises worldwide.

For more information on Lucent Technologies, which has headquarters in Murray Hill, N.J., USA, visit http://www.lucent.com.

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