Travelusacc Discussion Threads

[maywillow] 20/1/2005 08:52

PARIS (AFX) - A merger between Alcatel Space and Finmeccanica SpA unit
Alenia Spazio is imminent, financial daily La Tribune reported citing people
familiar with the matter.
Talks to finalise the agreement are expected to be completed "by the end of
January," the sources were cited as saying.
The companies signed a preliminary deal for the merger in June last year.
[e-mail]
jad/tc

[grupo] 18/1/2005 07:41

China Telecom taps Alcatel for optical backbone

January 17, 2005 Paris -- Alcatel has signed a multi-million contract with China Telecom to deploy an optical backbone network spanning 2,300 km across the southeastern part of China. The new transport infrastructure will provide connectivity for the ChinaNet2 (CN2) network. The contract was won through Alcatel Shanghai Bell, Alcatel's Chinese flagship company.

The new optical backbone network will link seven Chinese cites and will comprise two main transmission lines: one spanning from Shanghai to Guangzhou through Changsha and the other one connecting Shanghai to Xuzhou, via Chongming, Nantong and Lianyungang.

The deployment of the Alcatel equipment will enable China Telecom to meet the growing demand for nationwide IP-based data services with the highest level of reliability and quality of service (QoS). This will be the first implementation of an ultra long-haul DWDM network in China, with Alcatel supplying its 1626 Light Manager platform. Alcatel's IP Service Router was also recently selected for use in the ChinaNet2 IP/MPLS network

[ariane] 14/1/2005 13:56

Press Release Source: Aviation Week Group


Aeronautics and Space Leaders Meet to Collaborate on Major Program Execution at Aviation Week's World Aerospace Symposium, 16-17 February in Toulouse
Friday January 14, 2:00 am ET


NEW YORK, Jan. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- As the continual growth of cross-border alliances spurs the globalization of the aviation, aerospace and space industries, Aviation Week will host an executive-level event bringing together industry leaders to discuss new ideas to bring about greater international cooperation and to solve existing challenges facing major programs. The event, the World Aerospace Symposium - Toulouse 2005, will be held 16-17 February, 2005 at the Pierre Baudis Convention Center, Toulouse, France.
The Aviation Week World Aerospace Symposium is designed to stimulate new ideas, solve problems and set an agenda for global industry leadership and growth. It is a venue for sharing and learning among global industry leaders with an emphasis on connecting executives throughout their supply chains in every industry sector -- commercial, military and space.

The Symposium will include panel discussions and interactive workshops on the globalization of supply chain management with top executives who will share ideas and success stories for major aircraft, aerospace and military programs. Speakers include:

* Antoine Bouvier, Chairman & CEO, EADSAstrium

* Charles T. "Tom" Burbage, VP/GM, JSF, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics

* John Cheffins, COO, Rolls-Royce

* R Adm. Steven L. Enewold, PEO, Joint Strike Fighter Program

* Ted Gavrilis, President, Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems

* Claude-Henri Hereus, Vice President Procurement Strategy, Airbus

* John Leahy, Executive Vice President Customer Affairs, CCO, Airbus

* Al Miller, Director Advanced Materials-7E7, Boeing Commercial Airplane
Group

* Roger Pagny, Galileo Program Manager, French Ministry of Transport

* Dr. Mikhail Pogosyan, CEO, Sukhoi Holding Company

* Tom Risley, President & CEO, Vought Aircraft Industries

* Dave Ryan, Vice President & General Manager, Boeing Satellite Systems

* Pascale Sourisse, Chairman & CEO, Alcatel Space

* Richard Thompson, Senior Vice President Commercial, Airbus Military


"The world of aerospace has become an intricate matrix of transnational partnerships with supply chains that stretch around the planet in search of low costs, high quality and speed," said Aviation Week Executive Vice President/Publisher Kenneth E. Gazzola. "The leaders of this global enterprise join together at the center of European aeronautics and space development, Toulouse, in search of ways to align these disparate elements into an efficient, well-oiled, global operation. This is a world class forum for idea- exchange and learning among global business and technology leaders with an emphasis on connecting European and North American aviation, aerospace and space executives."

The World Aerospace Symposium -- Toulouse 2005 is produced in partnership with Airbus Industrie, Alcatel Space, EADS Astrium, and is sponsored by UGS. It is supported by Aeromart, the City of Toulouse, the Regional Council of Midi Pyrenees, the General Council of Haute Garonne and the Toulouse Chamber of Commerce.

For more information, including agenda, registration and complete speaker list please visit , or call 1-800-240- 7645.

About Aviation Week

Aviation Week conferences & Exhibitions is the professional education and events arm of the Aviation Week division of The McGraw-Hill Companies. With nearly 50 products and services and an audience of nearly 1 million professionals and enthusiasts, Aviation Week is the largest multimedia information provider to the global aviation and aerospace industry. Its web portal, , offers the industry's most reliable and comprehensive real-time news, professional information and e-business features.

About McGraw-Hill

Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies is a leading global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor's, BusinessWeek and McGraw-Hill Education. The Corporation has more than 280 offices in 40 countries. Sales in 2003 were $4.8 billion. Additional information is available at .




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Aviation Week Group

[maywillow] 13/1/2005 10:28

PARIS (AFX) - Alcatel SA said it won a multi-million usd contract from China
Telecom to build a 2,300 km optical backbone network in southeast China.
Alcatel won the contract through its Alcatel Shanghai Bell unit.
The new network, linking seven Chinese cities, will enable China Telecom to
meet demand for nation-wide internet protocol (IP) data services, Alcatel said.
[e-mail]
sr/ab

[grupo] 12/1/2005 17:20

Alcatel's Genesys to Deliver Converged Enterprise Communications

Distribution Source : PRNewswire

Date : Wednesday - January 12, 2005



SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 12 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., an Alcatel company , today announced it has signed a strategic agreement with Microsoft. Teaming with Microsoft's Real-Time Collaboration Group, Genesys plans to offer an integrated solution that enables users of Microsoft's next generation communications client, "Istanbul," to access contact information and make telephone calls through their computer.

"Partnerships between companies that understand telephony and those that focus on desktop applications present interesting visions for future business communications and collaboration. They will allow the integration of common desktop applications with well known existing PBXs and IP-PBXs," said Gartner vice president Bern Elliot. "Combining telephone functionality with instant messaging opens the door to a new suite of applications for business phones."





Presence, the concept of sharing availability status, has long provided instant messaging users with the ability to easily know whether or not contacts were available for online chat sessions. Products resulting from the agreement will take advantage of presence capabilities to provide users with an instant view of whether contacts are online or on the phone, while delivering point-and-click capabilities for placing and transferring calls and scheduling instant conferences from their Microsoft desktop.

"Working jointly with Genesys, we will extend the benefits of computer-telephony integration and presence throughout the enterprise," said Taylor Collyer, senior director, Real-Time Collaboration Group at Microsoft. "By linking the presence and collaboration capabilities of instant messaging with ubiquitous phone availability, we can deliver unprecedented access to customers, partners and colleagues, resulting in greater efficiency and improved communications."

"Our agreement with Microsoft leverages our expertise in telephony to provide tighter integration of communications with IT systems and applications," said Bonnie Crater, vice president of Genesys Enterprise Solutions activities. "Accessing and controlling telephone functionality through the computer provides immense opportunity to simplify business interactions and reduce repeated efforts to reach contacts. We look forward to ongoing development of solutions designed to enhance the Microsoft user's experience."

About Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc.

Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc., an Alcatel company, is 100% focused on software for call centers. Genesys recognizes that better interactions drive better business and build company reputations. Customer service solutions from Genesys deliver on this promise for Global 2000 enterprises, government organizations and telecommunications service providers across 80 countries, directing more than 100 million customer interactions every day. Sophisticated routing and reporting across voice, e-mail and Web channels ensure that customers are quickly connected to the best available resource - the first time. Genesys offers solutions for customer service, help desks, order desks, collections, outbound telesales and service, and workforce management. Visit for more information.

Genesys Telecommunications Laboratories, Inc.
CONTACT: Dana Dye of Genesys, [phone], or
[e-mail]

Web site:

[grupo guitarlumber] 06/1/2005 18:32

China's champions

The struggle of the champions

Jan 6th 2005










China wants to build world-class companies. Can it succeed?

THE floor of the darkened room is strewn with mattresses and scattered shoes. Sleeping bodies stir under duvets. Nearby, others nap at their desks, heads on arms. It is a Friday afternoon at the headquarters of Huawei-one of China's most dynamic and ambitious companies and one of a handful, alongside Haier in white goods, Lenovo in personal computers, TCL in televisions and steelmaker Baosteel, whose names are starting to be heard around the world.

The scene is reminiscent of a place on the other side of the globe: Silicon Valley at its most breathless, when programmers on the go "24/7" collapsed with exhaustion at their workstations. Huawei's astonishing campus on the outskirts of the southern city of Shenzhen is straight out of the technology bubble too, with four football fields, swimming pools, apartments for 3,000 families and a fantastical Disney-esque research centre with doric pillars and marbled interior.





The hubris at Huawei, which makes telecoms equipment like routers and switches, is also vintage 1990s America. Hu Yong, a vice-president, is proud of being in more than 70 countries, that over 3,000 of the group's 24,000 employees are overseas nationals and that two-fifths of its more than $5 billion revenues in 2004 will be made outside China. "Are we a global player? Fortune magazine says that is when international sales exceed 20% of your total," he says. "So the answer is yes."

Huawei is also starting to impress abroad. François Paulus, head of the network division at Neuf Telecom, a French firm that uses Huawei's optical transmission equipment to sell voice, data and video services, says: "When we first saw Huawei we couldn't believe a Chinese company could match an occidental one-we were wrong. Their technology was better and they were 30% cheaper." Nigel Pitcher at Fibernet, a British telecoms firm that uses Huawei's ethernet equipment, calls the company "world class". Huawei is spending millions of dollars building a global brand-its print ads lyrically recount how its engineers toiled in the Algerian Sahara to install mobile-phone base stations "ahead of schedule and under budget".

Yet the true extent of Huawei's international reach is hard to gauge. Much of its overseas business is in emerging markets where there is little competition. Though it is pushing into Europe, it lacks the muscle of rivals. In France it has only around 80 support staff compared with Alcatel's thousands. Mr Paulus worries that rivals are catching up with Huawei's technology. And while Huawei has won contracts in the growth area of third-generation mobile networks-the latest is in the Netherlands-many are in minor markets. That Cisco, the industry leader, successfully sued Huawei for intellectual-property theft suggests weaknesses in its technological base.

Back home in Shenzhen, Huawei is just as opaque. Its ornate buildings on campus are oddly deserted and Huawei is vague about what they are all for. While it insists that it is a private company owned by its employees, Ren Zhengfei, one of its founders, was an officer in the People's Liberation Army. The company denies, but admits it cannot shake, speculation that it is really controlled by the military. It denies even more hotly rumours that its overseas offices, some run from Chinese consulates, spy for China. William Xu, another vice-president, insists Huawei has no government links. Yet its multi-billion-yuan campus, lavish marketing and relentless expansion overseas are hard to square with it being a private company that made just $300m of profits last year. Nor is it clear why Huawei has not yet gone public (as some rivals have).

The contradictions at Huawei are mirrored to some degree by all of the country's emerging multinationals and ultimately reflect those of China itself. The economy is still in transition between dirigisme and free markets. Its political system can harness enormous resources, but ultimately undermines its own objectives in a paranoid desire to retain control.

That China intends to create world-class companies is indisputable. Appalled by the speed of western development and, rightly, attributing much of that to the success of western corporations, the central government decided some years ago that 30-50 of its best state firms should be built into "national champions" or "globally competitive" multinationals by 2010. At home, these companies would enjoy tax breaks, cheap land and virtually free funding via the state-owned banks. Abroad, the government would help them to secure contracts or exploration rights.

This has prompted fears that the Chinese, like the Japanese in the 1980s, are about to out-compete and to buy up the rest of the world. And undoubtedly a small group of Chinese companies has become bigger, more efficient and internationally acquisitive in the past several years. But this also raises questions about what kind of companies China is fit to build. Arthur Kroeber, managing editor of the China Economic Quarterly, argues that China's "unique combination of first world infrastructure and third world labour costs" and its focus on capacity building rather than technological innovation mean that corporate successes are more likely to be component manufacturers or processors of intermediate goods than global consumer brands such as South Korea's Samsung.



Energetic dragons
China's best companies bear this out. The most impressive are the resources groups. Three big oil companies, PetroChina, Sinopec and CNOOC, are aggressively buying overseas and building pipelines across central Asia to satisfy China's fuel demands. They are in more than a dozen countries: CNOOC, for example, is Indonesia's largest offshore oil producer.

Shanghai-based Baosteel, China's top steel producer, already sits on the Fortune 500 list of the largest global companies by sales. It will more than double capacity by 2010 to become the world's number three producer. In Brazil it is negotiating the biggest overseas investment ever made by a Chinese company.






Like Baosteel, Chalco, China's leading aluminium group, and Yanzhou Coal, the largest listed coal producer, are relatively new companies created to consolidate fragmented domestic industries and then to expand internationally. China Minmetals, the biggest base metals company, has gone further with its recent approach to buy Noranda, a Canadian copper and nickel miner, for a reported $7 billion. And in components Wanxiang, an auto parts group started by a farmer's son as a bicycle repair shop, has $2 billion of annual sales in 40 countries and owns research assets in America.

By contrast, China's consumer-brand and technology companies are struggling. The latest to grab the headlines is Lenovo, China's top PC-maker which in December bought IBM's personal computer business, three times its size, for almost $2 billion. Having failed to turn its own marque into a global brand-the reason it changed its name from Legend-it bought an international business, but one that even IBM could not make consistently profitable, to prop up its overseas sales. In China, Lenovo's profits from PCs are rising by just 1% per year and its market share is being squeezed as Dell makes inroads in expensive computers and private-label firms undercut prices on basic machines. Far from being world-class, Lenovo is less efficient than its domestic peers, says Joe Zhang, an analyst at UBS in Hong Kong. Some put its early success down to good government connections-it is majority-owned by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Another much-heralded company is Qingdao-based Haier. Having built up commanding domestic market shares of 20-70% for most home appliances, the group has offices in more than 100 countries and overseas revenues of over $1 billion. However, most of its international sales are in niche markets, and Haier lacks the cost control, production discipline, market dominance and sales support it needs to compete with foreign rivals outside China. Even at home it has had to resort to price wars to regain market share lost to better foreign products.

In cars, Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp (SAIC) aims to be among the world's top six car companies by 2020. In October it trumped a domestic rival to buy Ssangyong Motors, South Korea's fourth largest carmaker, and it is also in talks to rescue MG Rover in Britain. Yet these are defensive acquisitions of technologies and design skills to catch two nimbler rivals, Chery and Geely, which already make own-brand cars at home (Chery plans to launch models in America by 2007). Domestic joint-ventures with General Motors and Volkswagen have constrained SAIC and made it uncompetitive, says Paul Gao of McKinsey.

TCL has made a better fist of things. At home it remains the most profitable TV producer. Internationally, buying the TV business of France's Thomson in early 2004 turned it into the world's biggest volume TV maker. "Our goal is to be a Chinese Sony or Samsung," says the chairman, Li Dong Sheng. Despite the boast, at home TCL is depending on Thomson's rear-projection technology to make thinner sets to defend itself against Samsung. And in mature markets it does not intend to use TCL's brand at all, but is trying to revive Thomson's ailing RCA marque. Vincent Yan, managing director of TCL International, admits that, "no Chinese company is ready to build a global brand. You need technology and products. Just spending money on ads without good products doesn't make sense."



Reality check
Over the past decade, then, China has created some quite large companies. More than a dozen are in the Fortune 500 list, though almost all of those are domestic monopolies or near-monopolies, such as telecom operators or big commodity producers. A handful of others are starting to compete internationally, though mostly in niche markets and on price rather than with technology or brands.

But the global footprint of Chinese companies is still rather faint. Their outward foreign direct investment was just $2.9 billion in 2003, compared with the more than $50 billion that flowed into the mainland. China's stock of outward FDI amounts to $33 billion, less than half a percent of accumulated world FDI. These facts have led some long-term observers of the Chinese economy to the conclusion that China's industrial policy since the early 1980s essentially has failed. That might turn out to be premature. But one contrast is revealing: 20 years after the start of its rapid economic development a decade earlier, South Korea had built successful heavy industry groups and was beginning to lay the foundations for the technology and consumer brands people know today.

If anything, the gap between Chinese and foreign firms is widening, as the latter merge, reinvest the profits yielded by their scale economies and continually hone their management systems. One only has to think back to China's first crop of potential champions. A decade ago, Zhurong was hailed as the original Huawei. Both Founder and Stone were well ahead of Lenovo in the PC market and Yuchai, a diesel engines maker, and Kunming Machine Tool were seen as the next big technology plays. D'Long, a conglomerate spanning food and financial services, was lauded as a smart operator that bought tired foreign brands for a song and cut costs by taking manufacturing to China-until last year when it collapsed with huge debts.

These companies all had access to capital, cheap labour and a big domestic market. George Gilboy, an affiliate researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and for the past decade a senior manager at a multinational firm in Beijing, says they failed not because of poor products, but because of organisation and business strategy: "The issues that plagued them are still very much present." These issues are grounded in China's political and economic system and they lie in wait to trip up today's aspirants to world-class status.



Over here or over there?
Whereas policymakers in Japan and South Korea deliberately nurtured strong private companies (albeit often with close political ties), the Chinese government, deeply afraid of a politically independent private sector, implemented reforms that have given state firms privileged access to capital, technology and markets. But in order for the economy to grow faster, the central government has allowed foreign companies into China at a much earlier stage of its development and these now control the bulk of the country's industrial exports, have increasingly strong positions in its domestic markets and retain ownership of almost all technology. The result is a corporate landscape of a few big private companies such as Huawei, a mass of lumbering state-owned firms and increasingly powerful foreign multinationals.

China's unreformed political system has a second unintended consequence. Like the bosses of South Korea's chaebol before them, Chinese managers respond to regulatory inconsistency and opacity by pursuing short-term returns and excessive diversification rather than by investing in long-term technological development. Most are unwilling to develop "horizontal" networks with customers, suppliers and trade bodies-which in other countries establish technology standards and foster confidence in long-term research. In China, a company's best defence against corruption and the direct political linkages that benefit rivals is often to avoid business collaboration entirely and instead build vertical links up the Communist Party hierarchy and curry favour with local bureaucrats.

The power of officials to change policy at a moment's notice (suddenly appointing a successful boss as governor of a province, for example) or implement it in different ways for different firms, combined with the impossibility of achieving economies of scale through mergers because targets enjoy political patronage, together explain why Chinese managers tend to leap from one opportunity to the next, trying to grab a profit before the rules and the competition catch up. A year ago mobile phones were hot-Lenovo, TCL and Haier all invested, with little success, against Motorola and Nokia. Sun Jianmin, a management professor at Beijing's People's University, notes a cultural bias for financial services over "mere" manufacturing. Haier, TCL and even Baosteel all have subsidiaries in banking or insurance. "How can a long-term company emerge in such a short-term environment?" asks Mr Gilboy.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in technology. In recent years China has averaged a $12 billion annual trade deficit in electronic goods, components and machinery, according to the Ministry of Commerce. Most of its "high-tech" manufacturing is actually low-value-added assembly. The really smart bits, such as integrated circuits, are imported. The government continues to direct research spending, focusing on risky "big bang" projects (like sending a man into space). Indeed, China's low wages actually provide a disincentive to such investment, since Chinese firms can often boost short-run profits by replacing capital with additional labour.

Not surprisingly, therefore, foreign companies control virtually all the intellectual property in China and account for 85% of its technology exports. No wonder that Lenovo lacks Dell's ability to innovate and that Huawei tried to catch up with Cisco by bending the rules. Haier's furious product development-15,100 specifications across 96 categories, including a washing machine that also cleans sweet potatoes-typifies the lack of focus that is evident at many Chinese firms. As J.P. Huang, who runs JPI, a mergers & acquisitions boutique, puts it: "We Chinese like the romance of memorising Confucius. The discipline of the laboratory is not in our blood."



New wisdom needed
Nor, yet, is modern management thinking. Chinese companies struggle with challenges such as negotiating a cross-border partnership or exiting a loss-making activity, argues Gordon Orr at McKinsey in Shanghai. While multinationals import their most sophisticated business systems to China, improving productivity by 15% a year, Chinese companies still resort to "brute force"-throwing more labour and capital at problems, rather than thinking about new processes. Unless they improve, they do not stand a chance against world-class competitors, either outside their borders and soon not even on their home turf, warns Mr Orr.

China has so far failed to build world-class companies. Even the natural monopolies and resources companies are mostly just big rather than particularly efficient. In manufacturing, technology and consumer areas, a few companies are groping towards international competitiveness, but none are there yet. Nor will China necessarily produce a Sony or a Samsung. "People assume it is just a matter of time before China develops world-class brands," says Mr Gilboy. "But Chinese firms may not develop like Japanese or Korean ones did. China may be building a distinct model of capitalism with distinct firms." While American firms broadly excel at breakthrough innovations, and Japanese ones at process and incremental innovations, "China capitalism may simply be best at making things a lot cheaper." If so, China might do well to focus on building no-name component suppliers as Taiwan has, rather than home-grown brands as in Japan and South Korea.

For unless China institutes far-reaching political and structural reforms that give Chinese managers the confidence to invest in long-term technological development, it cannot readily build a globally competitive corporate sector. Those sleeping employees at Huawei might just have been working too hard. But perhaps they had little better to do. Workers napping on the job are nothing new at a Chinese company

[maywillow] 04/1/2005 11:34

JANUARY 04, 2005
PREVIOUS NEWS WIRE FEED

Alcatel Gives $1M Tsunami Aid

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PARIS -- Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA), which is present in all countries hit by the recent tsunami, will make 1 million US dollars worth of aid available to its local subsidiaries. This aid will expand local emergency actions already underway to restore networks and to provide relief in the most appropriate way.

In Sri Lanka and Indonesia, vital fixed and mobile communications services are being restored. Mobile networks play a key role in establishing the necessary contacts to provide essential relief needs.

In the locations hit by the tsunami, Alcatel employees are making personal contributions, which will be matched dollar-for-dollar by the company.

Alcatel has 1,400 employees in the region. The whole company is fully committed to contribute to the recovery of the affected countries.

Alcatel SA

[waldron] 31/12/2004 09:05

TOKYO (AFX) - The world's 26 major mobile phone operators and
telecommunication equipment-makers have agreed to work on a global standard for
a super fast mobile transmission technology, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun business
daily reported, without quoting sources.
The group includes NTT DoCoMo and NEC of Japan, Britain's Vodafone Group
PLC, US cellphone carrier Cingular Wireless, Alcatel of France and Siemens AG of
Germany, the newspaper said.
Using the new technology called Super 3G, the group plans to launch by 2009
global services for transmitting large volumes of moving images by mobile phones
at a speed 10 times faster than the current 3G (third-generation) technology,
the report said.
Super 3G can boost mobile transmission speeds to a range of 30 to 100
megabits per second to match existing land line fiber optic telecom technology,
allowing movies, games or home videos to be played on handsets with a much
higher resolution, it said.
The report said the cost of upgrading the mobile telecommunication network
for Super 3G in Japan may top 100 bln yen (975 mln usd).
The report could not be confirmed by Vodafone's Japan unit, NTT DoCoMo Inc,
or NEC Corp.
mxs/sct/hcw/jlw

[waldron] 28/12/2004 12:37

Telecommunications: Alcatel Supports Télécoms sans Frontières Humanitarian Effort
Posted by: festprint on Monday, December 27, 2004 - 12:35 PM




Alcatel Supports Télécoms sans Frontières Humanitarian Effort



Paris-/27 Dec, 2004 - The Wi-Fi Technology Forum/- On the occasion of its Season's greeting cards, Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) chose to donate 10 cents of euros per printed card to the "Télécoms sans Frontières" NGO.

"Télécoms sans Frontières" is a humanitarian NGO specialising in emergency telecommunications. Thanks to a permanent monitoring centre, as soon as a catastrophe or conflict is announced, its teams can intervene anywhere in the world. They install within minutes an operational telecommunications centre right at the heart of the event.
The goals of this telecommunications centre is to :

- Optimize the effectiveness of operations by enabling rescue teams to communicate efficiently

- Create a link between the victims of disasters or conflicts and the rest of the world.

"Télécoms sans Frontières" is member of the United Nations Working Group on Emergency Telecommunications (WGET), partner of the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) and member of the International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA).
For more information :

About Alcatel
Alcatel provides communications solutions to telecommunication carriers, Internet service providers and enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video applications to their customers or employees. Alcatel brings its leading position in fixed and mobile broadband networks, applications and services, to help its partners and customers build a user-centric broadband world. With sales of EURO 12.5 billion in 2003, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries.

[maywillow] 24/12/2004 17:13

Alcatel and Microsoft IPTV alliance
There are industry reports of a potential alliance that could result in Alcatel reselling the Microsoft TV system.

Both companies have been competitors in the emerging market for internet protocol television that allows operators to deliver television and video over broadband data networks.

Alcatel is an integration partner with Microsoft at SBC, which recently announced a major IPTV contract with Microsoft as part of its next-generation network.

There is speculation that Alcatel, a major telecommunications equipment company, could end up reselling the Microsoft software solution, potentially creating a significant competitor to other IPTV middleware providers.

Neither company has commented on the news.

www.alcatel.com
www.microsoft.com

IPTV

[ariane] 22/12/2004 07:14

PARIS (AFX) - A merger between Alcatel Space and Astrium, the satellites
unit of European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co, is not currently on the
agenda, EADS Space CEO Francois Auque said.
Speaking in an interview with financial daily La Tribune, Auque said that
"discussions between Alcatel Space and Astrium are absolutely not on the
agenda."
"We consider that a consolidation in the current climate in Europe would not
create any value for shareholders," he said.
In June Alcatel CEO Serge Tchuruk said that his company and Finmeccanica SpA
unit Alenia were ready to discuss an eventual tie-up with Astrium.
He said that "everyone agrees" there should be some kind of consolidation on
both sides of the Atlantic, but noted too that "there are not many options" in
Europe, with just three companies operating.
"It could only be that two merge and one remains independent, or that the
three merge," he said.
Alcatel and Finmeccanica agreed in June to a tie-up between their space
activities, creating two, jointly-held groups for both industrial and services
operations.
gam/jad/cmr

[waldron] 13/12/2004 13:32

PARIS (AFX) - Alcatel SA said it won a 47.6 mln eur contract from Latvian
Railways (LDZ), Latvia's state-owned operator, for the installation of
electronic train routing equipment as part of a network upgrade.
In the first stage of the contract, Alcatel will supply its LockTrac 6151
interlocking solution at 32 stations on the network's East-West corridor, and
its 6653 NetTrac central traffic control system in the cities of Jelgava and
Riga.
"We are looking forward to a long-term partnership with LDZ for the
modernization of the Latvian railway network," said Jean-Pierre Forestier,
Alcatels' president of transport automation activities.
[e-mail]
js/vs

[maywillow] 07/12/2004 11:30

SAO PAULO (AFX) - Embratel Participacoes SA will sign in the coming weeks a
contract with Alcatel for the construction of a satellite, financial daily Valor
Economico reported, citing Embratel president Carlos Henrique Moreira.
The investment for Embratel is estimated at 200 mln usd.
The Brazilian telecommunications company awarded last year to Alcatel a
first contract for the purchase of a 260 mln usd satellite.
These two satellites, known as C1 and C2, will replace the B1 and B2
BrasilSat satellites currently in operation.
Embratel, now controlled by Telefonos de Mexico SA, has not been open about
its new strategy, Valor Economico said.
But, according to the report, Moreira made clear yesterday that satellite
operations remain a key activity for the company.
Embratel is investing 600 mln usd in total to upgrade its satellite system
and extend its coverage to North America.
Moreira also criticised a plan backed by some members of the Brazilian
government to create a new state-owned satellite company, Valor said.
[e-mail]
jmp/cmr

[maywillow] 06/12/2004 11:52

PARIS (AFX) - Alcatel SA said it has won an order for its 5020 Softswitch
network switching equipment from Taiwan's Asia Pacific Telecom Group, who will
use the system to provide next-generation multimedia services to business
clients.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
[e-mail]
js/wf

[waldron] 06/12/2004 06:11

(Changes dateline to Tokyo; adds comments/details from news conference)
TOKYO (AFX) - Fujitsu Ltd and Cisco Systems Inc said they have agreed to
form a strategic alliance, focusing on routers and switches that will enable
businesses to build advanced Internet Protocol (IP) networks.
The alliance could help Cisco defend its market dominance in Japan against
inroads by Juniper Networks, which is fast gaining ground in the global market
for big routers.
For Fujitsu, the alliance with Cisco helps it get back into the router
market, which earlier this year it announced plans to quit.
Routers and switches are core elements of IP-based communications networks,
or networks based on Internet telephony. Such networks channel communications
via the Internet instead of over traditional telephone lines and are thus
cheaper, prompting a growing flood of companies to switch.
In the clearest sign that IP telephony is replacing traditional telephone
systems, KDDI Corp, Japan's second-largest telecommunications service company,
said in September it plans to replace its fixed-line phone network with an IP
network by the end of March 2008.
The Fujitsu/Cisco alliance will initially focus on the Japanese market, the
partners said in a joint statement. But at a subsequent news conference in
Tokyo, the companies said the alliance in time will focus on other Asian markets
and eventually the global market.
"We want to jointly market our products in Asia, including China," Fujitsu
corporate vice president Chiaki Ito said.
Mike Volpi, the senior vice president in charge of Cisco's routing group,
went even farther. "This alliance is not just for the Japanese market. We want
to take it global."
In the statement, Fujitsu and Cisco said they will together develop high-end
routers, plan future cooperation in routing and switching, and collaborate on
continuous quality improvement, enhanced support and service.
"Together, Fujitsu and Cisco have unparalleled technology depth, and through
the joint development and other collaborative efforts we are embarking upon, we
will be able to address service providers' needs with even higher quality
systems and innovative solutions," Fujitsu's Ito said.
San Diego-based Cisco Systems is the world's largest maker of routers,
machines at the center of the Internet which tie the system together by routing
traffic between servers.
But Cisco lately has lost market share rapidly to rival Juniper Networks
Inc. Cisco's share of the global market for big routers slid to 57 pct in the
past July-September quarter, from 68 pct a year earlier, according to market
researcher Dell'Oro Group. Juniper's market share jumped to 38 pct from 28 pct
over the same period.
Fujitsu too has been in retreat. Its communications equipment operations
posted an operating loss of about 30 bln yen for the past year to March. It
later announced plans to withdraw from router production and instead focus on
low-priced servers with router functions.
Fujitsu said it aimed to improve profitability by withdrawing from routers,
whose unit prices have been falling steadily. Market researchers say Fujitsu's
routers were uncompetitive and too expense because the company sold so few
outside Japan.
In contrast, Cisco controlled 63 pct of the Japanese market for high-speed
routers last quarter. But in addition to Juniper, it faces a new threat in Japan
from the tie-up formed in October by Hitachi Ltd and NEC Corp to develop
high-speed routers.
Fujitsu said it now aims to turn around its communications business through
the alliance with Cisco.
"We are aiming to turn the business into the black as soon as possible, and
our president wants to see it happen in the next fiscal year," Ito said.
Fujitsu's revenue from its network business totaled about 400 bln yen in the
past year to March 2004, with about 40 bln yen, or 10 pct, coming from its IP
business.
Ito said Fujitsu aimed to raise its IP revenue by 50 pct over three years.
Volpi, the vice president and general manager of Cisco's routing technology
group, said the alliance with Fujitsu could prove extremely valuable because
"Fujitsu is the world's best network solutions company" and Japan's Internet
technology is developing so fast.
"I think it is important to produce an Internet business model from Japan,"
said Volpi, referring to the rapid development in Japan of the market for IP
Internet telephony, multi-player gaming and other technologies.
NTT DoCoMo, Japan's largest mobile phone company, was the first in the world
to offer a service enabling mobile phone users to connect to the Internet. Its
i-mode service is now the most widely used service in the world, having been
licensed to service providers in 13 other countries around the world.
Fujitsu said the first line of products from the alliance are due out next
spring and will be based on Cisco's latest IOS-XR operating system.
[e-mail]
mxs/rte/mas

[grupo] 04/12/2004 11:37

Alcatel Deploys 3G Trial In Beijing
By Susan Rush
December 3, 2004
news@2 direct


China Netcom Group wants to test the waters of 3G, and has called on Alcatel to make it happen. Although terms of the newly signed deal were not disclosed, Alcatel will launch a 3G field trial network in Beijing.

Through its Chinese company Alcatel Shanghai Bell, Alcatel will supply its Evolium UMTS solution, which is based on products developed by Alcatel's joint venture with Fujitsu, Evolium SAS. Specifically, UMTS multistandard base stations, a radio network controller and core network elements will be deployed for the trial, Alcatel says.


Once the trial network is up and running, China Netcom says it will be able to test high-quality voice, data and multimedia wireless services in "true-to-life conditions" in Beijing.

Earlier this year, Alcatel deployed a similar 3G trial with China Telecom.

[ariane] 02/12/2004 11:18

PARIS (AFX) - Alcatel SA expects to post a gross margin of 38 pct or higher
"for 2005 and onwards," CFO Jean-Pascal Beaufret told analysts on the company's
investor day.
Alcatel still sees 200 mln eur savings in 2005, he added, according to a
presentation posted on the company's website.
[e-mail]
sr/hjp

[ariane] 02/12/2004 10:22

PARIS (AFX) - Alcatel SA said its Shanghai Bell unit won a contract from
China Netcom Group to provide a third generation field trial network in Beijing.
It supplied a similar 3G trial for China Telecom earlier this year.
"This trial with China Netcom is a significant step for Alcatel in China
because it puts us in good position for 3G with both of China's two key
potential 3G operators," Alcatel said.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
[e-mail]
sr/jsa

[ariane] 02/12/2004 09:13

PARIS (AFX) - Alcatel SA said it won a contract from the America's Cup
Management to provide media coverage to mobile network operators and ISPs for
the sailing competition in Spain in 2007.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
As part of the contract Alcatel will handle the distribution and sale of all
multimedia content to mobile network operators and ISPs worldwide.
It will also ensure video broadcasting of the races on GSM and UMTS mobile
terminals.
Alcatel is one of of ACM's five partners for the event.
[e-mail]
sr/jsa

[waldron] 29/11/2004 18:32

LONDON, November 29 (newratings.com) - Analysts at Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein reiterate their "sell" rating on Alcatel (CGE.ETR). The target price is set to €9.

In a research note published this morning, the analysts mention that the company is scheduled to hold its annual Analyst Day on December 2. During the meeting, Alcatel is expected to project double-digit operating margins for 2005, the analysts say. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein believes, however, that the company would continue to witness flat EPS and cash flow growth due to capital restructuring and staff attrition.