Alcatel-Lucent in Gartner leaders quadrant for next generation SDH/SONET reports

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) has been positioned by leading research firm Gartner in the leaders quadrant of both the 2007 “Magic Quadrant for SDH Equipment 2007” and “Magic Quadrant for SONET Equipment 2007” reports*. Gartner’s Magic Quadrants positions vendors in a particular market segment based on their vision and ability to execute that vision.

“As Ethernet transport and packet traffic growth increase, we believe our position in the leaders quadrant for next-generation SDH/SONET further validates our strategy to assist our customers with the innovative functionalities they need to address market changes,” said Romano Valussi, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s Optics activities. “We feel this evaluation also reconfirms the role of optical networking in operators’ competitive network transformation.”

Innovative, personalized multimedia end-user applications are revolutionising the way the world communicates. End-users of all ages are now comfortably familiar with high-tech services and applications. Mobile video or interactive TV services are no longer luxuries – they are used regularly and are expected as standard. To address the expansion of new IP-based services, operators are adopting network transformation strategies to accommodate legacy and new services without swapping out their previous investments and leveraging advanced protection mechanisms.

Alcatel-Lucent assists service providers in delivering these services over one converged optical-packet infrastructure that meets their main goals to accelerate business innovation, improve the quality of the end-user experience, while benefiting from a favorable cost/benefits ratio. Furthermore, Alcatel-Lucent’s solutions meet operators’ needs for network availability thanks to ultra-fast restoration and protection mechanisms; using standards-based automatically switched optical network/generalized multi-protocol label switching (ASON/GMPLS) technologies they provide control plane intelligence and help operators maintain efficient utilization of network resources.

The world leader in optical networking with a 23.3% market share in 2006 (Source: Ovum RHK), Alcatel-Lucent is spearheading the transformation to All Packet Transport. Alcatel-Lucent integrates its experience, leading portfolio and innovative vision into optical solutions that support a broad range of blended service applications - such as triple play, Carrier Ethernet connectivity and 3G mobile backhaul – exceeding customer needs in the fixed, mobile, submarine and vertical markets.



* The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted 2007 by Gartner, Inc. and is reused with permission, which permission should not be deemed to be an endorsement of any company or product depicted in the quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is Gartner, Inc.’s opinion and is an analytical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It measures vendors against Gartner defined criteria for a marketplace. The positioning of vendors within a Magic Quadrant is based on the complex interplay of many factors. Gartner does not advise enterprises to select only those firms in the “Leaders” quadrant. In some situations, firms in the Visionary, Challenger, or Niche Player quadrants may be the right matches for an enterprise’s requirements. Well-informed vendor selection decisions should rely on more than a Magic Quadrant. Gartner research is intended to be one of many information sources including otherpublishedinformation and direct analyst interaction. Gartner, Inc. expressly disclaims all warranties, express or implied, of fitness of this research for a particular purpose.