Print

Comment

Email

Digg

Del.icio.us

Reddit

As the networks have been rolled out and action is now on the user front, the handset vendors replaced the infrastructure equipment vendors in the top slots. The position of Lucent, the only major vendor in India that is not into handset business, dropped despite its strong showing in the infrastructure equipment market.

Lucent Technologies registered a total sales of Rs 1480 crore, according to VOICE&DATA estimates. The lion's share of more than Rs 1,100 crore came from Reliance Infocom, while the rest came from clients like Tata Teleservices and fixed line customers-BSNL and MTNL. Lucent, the single vendor to Reliance Infocomm, continues to add new equipments as well as capacity upgradation on embedded base capacity to Infocomm's expansion in 670 cities.

Lucent supplied advanced telecommunications infrastructure equipment to deploy high-speed CDMA2000TM wireless networks in several Indian states for Tata Teleservices (TTL). In addition to providing voice services, the network also enables TTL to offer its subscribers high-speed mobile access to data services such as wireless e-mail-including large attachments-streaming audio and video, and corporate Intranets. It has also got new deals from Tata for its expansion in the Andhra Pradesh circle.

CEO: Vincent Mazzola Area of Operation: Infrastructure Equipment Address: Lucent Technologies, Hindustan, NSE Building, Unit 1, Third Floor, Exchange Plaza, Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra (East), Mumbai 400 051 Tel: 022-5679 8700 Fax: 022-2659 8542 Website: www.lucent.com V&D estimates CyberMedia Research Highlights The lion's share of more than Rs 1,100 crore came from Reliance Infocom Supplied advanced telecommunications infrastructure equipment to deploy high-speed CDMA2000 wireless networks in several Indian states for Tata Teleservices The company provided 2.5 million switching lines through BSNL and MTNL across the country Lucent also suffered on payments in the first quarter, thanks to a delay in network acceptance by Reliance

The company provided 2.5 million switching lines through BSNL and MTNL across the country. It also deployed and commissioned a network management and surveillance system (NMSS) for BSNL. This system manages the countrywide long-distance network from its network management centers at Delhi, Mumbai, and Kolkata.

Lucent, which got out of the GSM equipment business, was supposed to be the supplier for one of the four zones (west) of BSNL. Though BSNL did place expansion order, Lucent had got out of the business. It also expressed its inability to take further orders from Escotel.

Lucent also suffered on payment in the first quarter, thanks to a delay in network acceptance by Reliance.

The company believes that e-video will be the next big thing as it can be supported by CDMA. Though there has been a plateau in the growth, the company expects a change soon. As pioneers for e-video, the company is focusing on broadband and applications like e-video on it.

After its success in China for its optical portfolio-where it competed against the local players-it is confident about its success in the country with its effective price point.

Lucent has introduced the Global Science Scholars Program to encourage the youth to pursue a career in communications technology. As part of this program, the Lucent Foundation selected three outstanding engineering students from India and sent them on a week's internship with researchers and scientists at Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs in the United States.

Lucent, which had been almost written off, has managed to come out of the crisis and India has played a major role in the recovery of the company. Especially in the wireless area, where it has decided to focus on CDMA, India and China are the two markets that have helped Lucent build a considerable base. In fact, both its major customers in CDMA-Reliance and Tata-are from India.

Lucent's next target in India is broadband, where it foresees large deployments in the next 3–4 years. This will supplement its network rollout for CDMA-based service providers.