2007 John Tyndall Award bestowed on Alcatel’s Desurvire for his contribution to optical fiber technologies

Paris, October 17, 2006 - Emmanuel Desurvire from Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) has received the 21st John Tyndall Award, the highest recognition in the optical telecommunications community. Emmanuel Desurvire is Senior Director of Photonic Technologies for Alcatel’s optical networking activities. The Award is given annually to a single individual, who has made outstanding contributions, of proven benefit, in any area of optical teleommunications. This is the second time that, since its inauguration in 1987, the Award has gone to a European representative. The award ceremony will be held on March 26, 2007.

Emmanuel Desurvire has made major contributions in many experimental and theoretical areas of optical communications during his career. His activity has earned him prizes from the International Commission for Optics in 1994, the 1998 Benjamin Franklin Medal in the field of engineering and the 2005 William Streifer Award.

The innovations that Emmanuel Desurvire pioneered relate to erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFA) that consist of “doping” the core of a short length of optical fiber to periodically boost signals and transmit several information channels through a single fiber-optic link. This approach has changed optical communications in a revolutionary way, being a forerunner to wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) and to the realization of modern, high-speed optical networks.

Alcatel has been involved from the very beginning in the industrial development of EDFAs, and both its terrestrial and submarine systems today rely on this technology.

About John Tyndall Award
John Tyndall paved the way for today’s optical communications by demonstrating that light can propagate through a tube of water by multiple internal reflections. This effect was the forerunner of today’s principle of guiding light in optical fibers. The IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society (LEOS) and the Optical Society of America (OSA) jointly sponsor the John Tyndall Award, which is endowed by Corning Inc.

About Alcatel
Alcatel provides communications solutions to telecommunication carriers, Internet service providers and enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video applications to their customers or employees. Alcatel brings its leading position in fixed and mobile broadband networks, applications and services, to help its partners and customers build a user-centric broadband world. With sales of EURO 13.1 billion and 58,000 employees in 2005, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet: http://www.alcatel.com

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Corporate Media Relations

Alcatel

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