Deliver Your News to the World

E-Plus Mobilfunk and Alcatel-Lucent sign major network outsourcing agreement


WEBWIRE

E-Plus Mobilfunk is the first mobile operator in Germany to outsource the operation and maintenance of its cellular network Some 750 E-Plus employees to join Alcatel-Lucent

Paris, February 27, 2007 - Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) and E-Plus announced today that the world’s leading network integrator will be managing several network business divisions of Germany’s third-largest mobile communications provider, E-Plus Mobilfunk. Under the terms of the network outsourcing agreement, E-Plus Mobilfunk will transfer the operational business divisions responsible for the operation, maintenance and deployment of its cellular network to Alcatel-Lucent on March 1, enabling E-Plus to concentrate on its core business, reduce operational expenses and increase network quality.

As part of this agreement, about 750 E-Plus employees in Germany will join Alcatel-Lucent.

E-Plus will maintain responsibility for strategic network planning and network development, including the selection of mobile communications locations and their technical equipment to ensure the long-term quality of its cellular network.

“Our decision to enter a strategic partnership with Alcatel-Lucent is designed to guarantee our subscribers a network of a constantly increasing quality over the long term,” explained Elmar Grasser, Chief Technical Officer of E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH & Co KG. “Alcatel-Lucent is the world’s leading network integrator with the resources to meet future network construction and maintenance requirements with greater speed, flexibility and cost synergies than we could alone. And with this step, we’re once again playing a pioneering role on the German market.”

The outsourcing of several network divisions is part of E-Plus’s strategic reorientation and follows the company´s recently announced restructuring. These measures are intended to lead to increased customer focus as well as boosting efficiency, flexibility and effectiveness, thus contributing to E-Plus´ continued profitable growth.

“By outsourcing individual business divisions, we can apply greater energy to our core business – and that means quality and especially care for our customers. It will put us in a position to focus even more attention on the development of simple, cost-effective mobile communications solutions for clearly defined customer segments,” Grasser added.

Network operations and managed services is a key focus area for Alcatel-Lucent’s service activities. Alcatel-Lucent manages more than 50 networks around the world from ten of its Global Network Operations Centers and IP Transformation Centers.

"We are proud that an innovative, quality-conscious service provider like E-Plus has entrusted us with the maintenance and management of its cellular network,” said John Meyer, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s service activities. “We are the world’s leading network integrator, and hosted and network operations is one of our strengths. We look forward to helping E-Plus meet the needs of their customers. We also look forward to having the experienced and talented employees from E-Plus join the Alcatel-Lucent team, bolstering our ability to serve this important customer and expanding our expertise and resources.”



About E-Plus Mobilfunk
With over 12.7 million subscribers as of December 2006, E-Plus Mobilfunk GmbH & Co. KG is the third largest mobile communications provider in Germany. Profitable growth is central to the company, which consistently gears its activities according to its operating results. E-Plus has significantly increased its market share since mid-2005, experiencing the fastest and most profitable growth of the providers present on the German market. With the launch of new names and products such as BASE, simyo and AY YILDIZ in 2005, the company has evolved into a brand group. The BASE flat-rate brand with subscription cards for normal and heavy users and the discount simyo brand with prepaid cards for infrequent users round out the E-Plus line for private and business customers. AY YILDIZ is the first mobile brand for the Turkish-German community. The latest addition to the range had its debut in October 2006: vybemobile, Germany’s first phone and music brand for young users and music fans. Partnerships with enterprises from other industries such as Medion (ALDI talk), VIVA and Conrad round out the family. Since mid-2005, these new initiatives have brought nearly 4.3 million users to the E-Plus fold.



About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) provides solutions that enable service providers, enterprises 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 adjusted proforma revenues of Euro 18.3 billion in 2006 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. [All figures exclude impact of activities to be transferred to Thales]. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

Contact the Alcatel-Lucent Press Office: press@alcatel-lucent.com



WebWireID27946





This news content was configured by WebWire editorial staff. Linking is permitted.

News Release Distribution and Press Release Distribution Services Provided by WebWire.