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| Wednesday, 28 March 2007 | |
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Up to US$6bn in wireless equipment orders for a French-controlled company plus some fibre business as well. Sacre bleu! The profits are flooding back to Paris.
Alcatel-Lucent, the company whose merger (ha! ha!) was consummated at the beginning of this year, has pulled out a pair of plum American contracts in the last two days. Both concern Verizon of the US. One relates to a US$6bn wireless deal and the other, smaller deal relates to FTTP broadband fibre network equipment. . Of course, within the framework of this new transatlantic industrial entente cordiale, the language left you wondering which company was more gushingly grateful to the other. Monday’s statements on the wireless deal said: “With strong support from Alcatel-Lucent, we at Verizon Wireless provide our customers with the highest quality and most advanced mobile network in the US. The US$6 billion investment we’re announcing today is indicative of our willingness to further separate us from our competitors in the marketplace”, said Dick Lynch, chief technology officer and executive vice president of Verizon Wireless. “We will deliver value over fully interoperable IP-services that enhance the lifestyles of our customers – by offering multimedia services that combine voice, data, and video capabilities.” “This agreement underscores Verizon Wireless’ commitment to quality and to further enhancing the industry-leading multimedia and data services that its customers already enjoy,” said Cindy Christy, president of Alcatel-Lucent’s North America business. “We are proud of the confidence Verizon Wireless has in our abilities and our comprehensive and extensive portfolio of products, solutions and services.” If that looked like a ‘made in Lucent, made in America’ deal, the same cannot be said of the deal featuring Alcatel’s gigabit passive optical network (G-PON) technology. Again, the mutual respect expressed yesterday was formidable. Cindy Christy stepped up to the plate once more: "Verizon is creatively and aggressively transforming its network to deliver a rich mix of voice, video and data services to its subscribers. Our innovation and expertise in the G-PON area provides a long-term strategic advantage to Verizon now and in the future as it best meets demands for higher capacity, personal and blended services over converged networks.” The deal may eventually be deployed across Verizon’s 16-state FTTP network. Sounds like the start of a rapprochement between the US and France. Jim Chalmers |
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