'India and China will be our growth and innovation engines'

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Olivier Baujard, chief technology officer, Alcatel-Lucent, says high-speed broadband connectivity with mobility and converged services on a single platform will be the new technology to look out for. Universal personalized TV and multimedia self-generated content will be the "hits" of the period to come.

Olivier Baujard, who has been working with Alcatel-Lucent for the past 20 years, is passionate about the Indian market and technology advancement. He was previously CTO, Alcatel. Prior to that, he held a variety of positions within Alcatel as senior vice president, Corporate Strategy of Alcatel, from 2002 to 2004; president of the Alcatel's Network Applications Division from 2000 to 2001; president of the Enterprise Solutions Division from 1997 to 2000; and president of the Switching Systems Division from 1995 to 1997. Olivier Baujard has obtained degrees from Ecole Polytechnique in Paris and Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications in Paris.

In an interview with Voice&Data, Olivier Baujard, who is closely watching the Indian telecom market, spoke about Alcatel-Lucent's plans for the South Asian region.

India is a key market for global telecom players. What is Alcatel-Lucent's expansion plan in India in terms of infrastructure, investments, etc?
The Indian operations of Alcatel-Lucent are very important and strategic for the group and already are one of the largest operations in the world in terms of resources. We have many research and development activities taking place in India. We leverage the technical knowledge and talent base that we have in this country. The major R&D centers are located in Gurgaon, Noida, Bangalore and Chennai and have key competencies in software, data, and wireless technologies.

What are the technology focus areas?
Alcatel-Lucent will primarily be focusing on broadband access (GPON/WiMax/WCDMA/LTE/CDMA 2000EvDO), optical networks, IP service aware & NGN/IMS. Alcatel-Lucent will also continue to develop end-to-end integration and delivery capabilities, which are key to the success of new solutions.

Alcatel-Lucent has spent on technology innovations. Can you please elaborate on new products in the pipeline?
In 2006, we spent more than 2.7 bn in R&D. The year 2007 will be a very important year for Alcatel-Lucent, as we will progressively unveil our unified portfolio. At the 3GSM world congress in Barcelona, we announced our new wireless access multi-radio solution, combining GSM, UMTS, LTE, CDMA and WiMax technologies, as well as a flat IP wireless architecture for indoor coverage. Later this year, other new products and solutions including IMS based applications, enhanced quality IP edge routers, and secured networking solutions for enterprise usage will be launched.

What is the main technological contribution from India to Alcatel-Lucent globally?
We have development centers in India, which are developing robust applications and software for the company globally. Besides, in partnership with C-DoT, we also have our largest research center dedicated to WiMax in Chennai. Finally, we have strategic partners in manufacturing for a variety of infrastructure equipment.

WiMax and 3G will be deployed in India almost at the same time. Which technology will grow faster and why? What are the key differences as far as Indian market is concerned?
The two technologies will coexist and will be complimentary to each other. The deployments will be done on a case-to-case basis with a number of parameters affecting the choice of technology. 3G will be more focused as an expansion of mobile to true wideband capabilities, while WiMax will primarily be a data driven technology, with VoIP being an integral part of this offering.

What are Alcatel-Lucent's main initiatives for the enterprise market?
Alcatel-Lucent has a high focus on enterprise. Globally, we have a leading market position in contact center software, small/medium business telephony and IP address management. Our product portfolio is exhaustive and one of the best in the world and includes unified communications and contact centers (Genesys), IP telephony, IP address, and performance management software and security solutions. Alcatel-Lucent also has a unique capability to combine enterprise and carrier skills to deliver full solutions in market segments such as government, transport, oil and gas, education and health for which communication is mission critical. The most recent illustration of this capability is our great success with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), the largest integrated health care enterprise in Pennsylvania (US). Alcatel-Lucent will lead the IP network transformation project upgrading UPMC's wired and wireless data infrastructure, enterprise telephony system, and contact center platforms and applications to a new converged IP infrastructure.

Integration of telecom services (for instance, landline with mobile) is happening in key markets. Will Alcatel-Lucent play any role in it?
We have strong IMS solution in place to cater to this market and we have successfully deployed the same in markets across the world. We have more than 20 successful worldwide commercial deployments of IMS and are market leaders in this technology. Thus, Alcatel-Lucent is much more competent to drive the convergence between the technologies (fixed and mobile), which will play a vital role in convergence in the Indian market in the near future.

The Indian market has seen a slew of new products and services in the past 10 years. For consumers, which are the new technologies/services to look for?
High speed broadband connectivity with mobility and converged services on a single platform. Personally, I am also convinced that universal personalized TV and multimedia self generated content will be the "hits" of the period to come.

Alcatel-Lucent has been operating in several countries. What are the key cultural and operational differences between China and India, the two fastest growing telecom markets in the world?
As you know, Alcatel-Lucent is present in more than 130 countries in the world. We are a global company but with a very strong local presence. Both India and China are important countries for us and we have significant presence in these two fast growing markets in terms not only of sales and support functions, but also in manufacturing and R&I functions. Both will be, for sure, growth and innovation engines for Alcatel-Lucent in the coming years.

Baburajan K
baburajank@cybermedia.co.in