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Alcatel-Lucent’s Taiwan WiMAX Center to foster a robust next-generation wireless ecosystem in 2009, building on 2008 successes


WEBWIRE

Taipei — Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today highlighted the achievement of a variety of key milestones in 2008 by its Taiwan WiMAX Center, achievements which will help foster a robust 4G ecosystem in Taiwan and ensure that service providers have access to a rich variety of infrastructure, devices and applications to support next-generation wireless services. In 2008 the center - established in cooperation with Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs (MoEA) - achieved concrete results in the areas of WiMAX interoperability testing, device certification, and strengthening of cooperation between local companies and WiMAX service operators in various global markets.

Alcatel-Lucent opened the center in January 2008,dedicating its efforts to WiMAX application service development and helping Taiwan’s terminal device manufacturers perform interoperability testing and development of WiMAX products. The center, which is an integral element of Alcatel-Lucent’s global WiMAX initiatives, was established through a memorandum of understanding with the MoEA that was signed in October 2007. Since it began operations, the center has actively catalyzed cross-industry cooperation.

Concrete results are as follows:

* Interoperability testing: Collaborated with 8 Taiwan technology giants, including Asus, AWB/Accton, D-Link, Gemtek, MediaTek, QMI/Quanta, USI and Zyxel in interoperability testing of WiMAX terminal devices on 24 models, including indoor and outdoor CPE, PCMCIA/Express cards, USB dongles and WiMAX-enabled laptops.
* Device certification: Enabled the ramp-up of Alcatel-Lucent’s WiMAX Seal of Interoperability Acceptance for Commercial Services (SIACS), giving Alcatel-Lucent’s operator customers the highest possible assurance of interoperability and quality. Award of SIACS to products provides WiMAX service operators with performance metrics for enhanced predictability. So far, devices from Zyxel, Quanta, Accton, and D-Link have been the Alcatel-Lucent SIACS.
* Strengthening of cooperation between local manufacturers and global WiMAX service operators: In line with the Alcatel-Lucent Open Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) program, the center has actively facilitated contacts and cooperation between local CPE suppliers and WiMAX service providers worldwide, permitting the latter to offer their customers the widest variety and highest quality of devices. In the past year, the center has received WiMAX service operators, from Hong Kong, Cambodia, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Europe, and Australia to Taiwan and facilitated meetings with local CPE suppliers.

Under its new WiMAX strategy, Alcatel-Lucent is committed to continuing development of its WiMAX 802.16e (Rev-e) product line, refocusing on the dominant WiMAX market today. It is optimizing R&D through common platforms that are applicable to solutions for WiMAX and also LTE, which Alcatel-Lucent views as the ideal technology for 4G cellular services. The company is working to accelerate the convergence of the two standards, providing the highest level of flexibility to service providers going forward via a smooth WiMAX-to-LTE TDD migration, for operators that choose that path. Alcatel-Lucent’s Open CPE and SIACS programs, which have been instrumental in creating a strong WiMAX ecosystem, will continue and will gradually evolve to include LTE-TDD devices.

The Taiwan government has long encouraged multinational companies to establish R&D centers in Taiwan. Alcatel-Lucent’s WiMAX center has achieved significant results in its first year of operation which is the realization of the memorandum of understanding with MoEA to accelerate 4G ecosystem development in Taiwan.

“Alcatel-Lucent is optimistic about the development of WiMAX and will continue to support the WiMAX Forum’s activities and be one of the fourteen WiMAX Forum Board Members. In the future, Alcatel-Lucent will be actively engaged in developing 4G standards, and will support WiMAX product development in order to retain technical and commercial leadership,” said Paul Larbey, Vice President, Head of theNext Generation Mobile Access Product Unit at Alcatel-Lucent. “Alcatel-Lucent also plans to simplify the SIACS certification process so that companies in Taiwan will be able to both conduct interoperability testing and obtain certification locally.”

About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is the trusted partner of service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide, providing solutions that deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organization in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. 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



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