Neuf Cegetel selects Alcatel-Lucent’s GPON solution for very high speed services

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) announced today that Neuf Cegetel, France’s leading alternative service provider has selected it, to deploy a Gigabit Passive Optical Networking solution (GPON) for very high-speed services.Neuf Cegetel will build an all-fiber access network, enabling advanced triple play services - including HDTV on multiple TV sets, to enrich user experiences via multimedia services.

Alcatel-Lucent will also be responsible for project management, installation, and maintenance services and will provide its innovative 7342 ISAM FTTU (Fiber to the User) solution, including the new optical network terminal (ONT) in the home, the industry’s most compact GPON ONT. First deployments began this past summer.

“Neuf Cegetel is currently deploying a FTTx network in various French cities. Part of this network will rely on GPON technology and Alcatel-Lucent‘s strong leadership in this field will support us in offering advanced triple play services to our customers,” said François Paulus, general manager of Neuf Cegetel’s Broadband division. “It is also essential for us to deploy a mature solution that can support large-scale deployments of such very high speed services.”

“This contract highlights Neuf Cegetel’s renewed confidence in our access solutions and our ability to support the introduction of advanced applications such as HDTV,” said Olivier Picard, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s Europe and South activities. “ With our GPON solution, Neuf Cegetel will benefit from the most innovative access technology on the market.”

This FTTU solution is part of Alcatel-Lucent’s ISAM family which is designed for 100% IPTV and NGN / IMS voice convergence in access. Moreover, it provides an unsurpassed IPTV experience with a 5 star rating for video support (Current Analysis report of January 2007), as well as cost effective migration to packet-based voice. This robust and proven solution extends the bandwidth potential of fiber from the network core to the subscriber premise using the latest GPON recommendations of the Full Service Access Network (FSAN) group.

Alcatel-Lucent has consistently been acknowledged as the market leader in broadband access. Alcatel-Lucent remains the uncontested market leader in broadband access with more than 142 million DSL lines shipped and a cumulative market share of 41%, more than three times that of its nearest competitor. More than 135 customers have adopted the ISAM product family globally – including 80% of the top 20 DSL operators in the world. Alcatel-Lucent is also engaged in more than 60 FTTx projects around the world, more than 30 of which are with GPON.