Deliver Your News to the World

Alcatel-Lucent and Freescale speed Fiber-to-the-Home adoption


WEBWIRE

Paris, February 7, 2007 — Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) and Freescale announced today their plan to facilitate the adoption of fiber-to-the-home technologies by making available jointly-developed GPON technology and interoperability specifications to vendors of terminal equipment worldwide.

Through an agreement with Freescale Semiconductor, terminal vendors will now be able to license critical technologies, including reference designs and support, for gigabit passive optical networking (GPON) that is compliant with Alcatel-Lucent’s 7342 ISAM fiber-to-the-user (FTTU) product family. In addition, and under a separate agreement, Alcatel-Lucent will offer support services required to promote interoperability.

“Alcatel-Lucent has been a long-standing promoter of the Full Service Access Network (FSAN) Group’s* efforts to standardize GPON and this should come as no great surprise given our market position in broadband access,” says Dirk Van den Berghen, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s access activities. “It is fully expected that this move will help eliminate industry barriers toward multi-vendor interoperability and enable service providers to select GPON terminal equipment in nearly any configuration they desire at competitive prices.”

As part of this program, manufacturers of GPON terminal equipment will be able to procure system-on-a-chip (SOC) silicon from industry leader Freescale Semiconductor. Freescale and Alcatel-Lucent had already partnered in 2005 to deliver the first available GPON interface using a combination of Freescale and Alcatel-Lucent intellectual property. Through the use of a reference design and support services, vendors will now be able to ensure interoperability of GPON optical network terminals (ONTs).

“Freescale’s ongoing collaboration with Alcatel-Lucent gives customers access to exceptional software and systems expertise while helping to drive industry-wide adoption of advanced fiber-to-the-home technology,” said Lynelle McKay, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Freescale’s Networking and Computing Systems Group. “This important technology milestone, a result of combining Freescale’s GPON SoC capabilities with Alcatel-Lucent’s broadband system leadership, ultimately benefits subscribers who can look forward to a greater choice of broadband services in the future.”

Alcatel-Lucent is a leading provider of DSL, having shipped over 115 million lines, and a leading manufacturer of fiber-to-the-home equipment with more than 60 deployments. Alcatel-Lucent’s GPON equipment is comprised of the 7342 Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM) fiber-to-the-user (FTTU) system, which has received worldwide adoption.

*The Full Service Access Network (FSAN) Group is a forum for the world’s leading telecommunications services providers and equipment suppliers to work towards a common goal of truly broadband access networks.

About Freescale Semiconductor
Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. is a global leader in the design and manufacture of embedded semiconductors for the automotive, consumer, industrial, networking and wireless markets. The privately held company is based in Austin, Texas, and has design, research and development, manufacturing or sales operations in more than 30 countries. Freescale is one of the world’s largest semiconductor companies with 2006 sales of $6.4 billion (USD). www.freescale.com

About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) provides solutions that enable service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide, to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. As a leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications, and services, Alcatel-Lucent offers the end-to-end solutions that enable compelling communications services for people at home, at work and on the move. With 79,000 employees and operations in more than 130 countries, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with global reach. The company has the most experienced global services team in the industry, and one of the largest research, technology and innovation organizations in the telecommunications industry. Alcatel-Lucent achieved proforma combined revenues of Euro 18.6 billion in 2005, and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. [All figures exclude impact of activities to be transferred to Thales]. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

Contact the Alcatel-Lucent Press Office: press@alcatel-lucent.com



WebWireID27192





This news content was configured by WebWire editorial staff. Linking is permitted.

News Release Distribution and Press Release Distribution Services Provided by WebWire.