Alcatel-Lucent increases switching capacity of its GPON network termination card to 250 Gbps

Paris.– Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced important capacity innovations to its 7342 Intelligent Services Access Manager Fiber to the User (ISAM FTTU) GPON platform – at the occasion of the Fiber to the Home (FTTH) Council Europe’s annual conference, taking place in Paris (France) on February 27th & 28th, 2008.

Alcatel-Lucent’s 7342 ISAM FTTU allows service providers to revolutionize their access networks and benefit from a long-term competitive edge. The platform’s newest release features an innovative 250 Gbps switching capacity per network termination (NT) module and supports load sharing between the two NTs in a single shelf. These innovations guarantee the platform’s non-blocking, future-proof characteristics for the deployment of IPTV, video-on-demand and other broadband services – and can be added to the Alcatel-Lucent GPON shelves that are currently being shipped.

New as well, is the platform’s unique uplink capacity - with two 10 Gbps and two 1 Gbps uplinks per NT – providing the non-blocking throughput that is needed for the delivery of high-bandwidth, converged triple play services to consumers as well as business customers.

“These important innovations to our GPON platform once again confirm Alcatel-Lucent’s technology leadership in fiber access,” said Luis Martinez Amago, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s fixed access activities. “The 7342 ISAM FTTU is optimized for addressing the bandwidth requirements of single-dwelling unit, multiple-dwelling unit and business customer segments, and has already been sold to more than 60 operators around the world.”

Alcatel-Lucent is engaged in over 80 FTTx projects around the world, over 60 of which are with GPON. Leading service providers like Verizon and France Telecom have adopted Alcatel-Lucent’s GPON solution. Alcatel-Lucent’s FTTH solutions are also being adopted by numerous competitive providers (including Hanaro Telecom, Neuf Cegetel and Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited); by utility companies (a.o. NRGi Fibernet, Jönköping Energi, Bristol Virginia Utilities); municipalities (a.o. Arvidsjaur, Tidaholm - Sweden), and regions such as Asturias, Spain. Alcatel-Lucent also recently signed a number of contracts to deploy point-to-point (P2P) fiber networks.