Club Med chooses Alcatel-Lucent to transform worldwide telephony services

Paris — Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced a seven-year agreement with all-inclusive resort company Club Med. Under the agreement, Alcatel‑Lucent and its global business partners will install and manage the company’s telephony solution for hospitality, bringing improved communications that will help meet the increasingly high expectations of Club Med guests and employees, and differentiate the company in a highly competitive industry.

In the first phase of the project, 30,000 lines at 87 sites – including sales offices, resort hotels, and Club Med corporate headquarters in Paris – will be equipped with Alcatel-Lucent’s OmniPCX Enterprise telephony solution. Highly scalable and flexible, it enables Club Med to add new locations as required. Alcatel-Lucent and Club Med are also implementing DSL technology throughout Asia to provide value-added guest services such as in-room WiFi. Club Med is as well interested in advanced solutions like television-based softphones, using television as a multimedia device, enabled by the DSLAM technology.

With Alcatel-Lucent’s managed services solution, Club Med will have unprecedented control and visibility over its entire telephony solution through centralized management and reporting, letting it streamline processes and lower costs.

“We were looking for a long-term partner, not just an immediate equipment provider,” said Michel Wolfovski, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Club Med. “We chose Alcatel-Lucent for its broad product line, industry expertise and global presence. We are confident that Alcatel-Lucent understands our objectives and will work with us to achieve our – vision to become the worldwide specialist of all-inclusive, upscale, friendly and multicultural vacations.

“Alcatel-Lucent’s solution, dynamic hospitality, combines end-to-end technology and management solutions to improve guest experience, streamline operations, and increase revenues,” said Tom Burns, Chief Operating Officer of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise activities. “Club Med understands the importance of communications in today’s highly competitive hospitality industry, and shares Alcatel-Lucent’s vision of combining the key elements of network, people, process and knowledge to help transform itself into a dynamic enterprise.”

As customer expectations continue to evolve alongside emerging technology and lifestyle trends, Alcatel-Lucent will continue to offer innovative and effective solutions to meet guest expectations’, optimize hospitality operations and generate new revenue streams. Standards-based architecture, end-to-end technology and a commitment to sustainable development also underlie Alcatel-Lucent solutions.

About Club Med
Club Méditerranée was the inventor of the holiday club concept, becoming the worldwide leader in all-inclusive holidays. It is present in 40 countries, with 80 Villages on five continents and a cruise ship, the Club Med 2. Club Med is marketed by over 1500 travel agencies, through its direct and indirect distribution networks. In 2003, Club Méditerranée started implementing a repositioning strategy, redesigning its offer to meet the demands of a clientele seeking outstanding holidays. By creating the market sector of upscale holidays, friendly and multicultural in nature, Club Méditerranée has become the reference in the field of prestige holidays, benefiting from its ability to encourage ties and enjoyment through the professional attitude and consistent attentiveness and warmth of its GOs. The creation or renovation of Villages as emblematic as La Plantation d’Albion Club Med (Mauritius), Marrakech Le Riad (Morocco), Peisey Vallandry (France), Buccaneer’s Creek (Martinique), Kani (Maldives), Agadir (Morocco), Cancún-Yucatán (Mexico), as well as projects in South Africa, Senegal or Vietnam, perfectly illustrate its desire to raise its standing. The same can be said of the new worldwide advertising campaign, launched in January 2008, whose new slogan is “Club Med, where happiness means the world”. external linkwww.clubmed.fr

About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) provides solutions that enable service providers, enterprise 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 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 revenues of Euro 17.8 billion in 2007 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com