Lucent Confirms Leadership in Wireless Technology With US$400 Million Contract Signings in Australia and New Zealand - AAPT and Telecom New Zealand - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, Feb 21, 2000

Lucent Technologies has furthered its leadership in wireless technology with Monday's announcement of two major sales in the Asia Pacific region worth a total of approximately US$400 million. AAPT in Australia and Telecom New Zealand have awarded contracts to Lucent to build new wireless mobile phone networks using a state-of-the-art digital technology called CDMA (code division multiple access.)

CDMA offers consumers a new level of landline-quality voice service as compared with older analogue cellular systems yet is also capable of supporting phones with specialized browsers that are continuously connected to useful Internet-based information.

AAPT awarded a AUS$450 million (US$300M), contract to Lucent to build and support its new national mobile phone network based on CDMA technology. The full commercial launch date of the network is scheduled for late 2000. At this stage it is estimated that the network will manage more than 1 million subscribers.

Telecom New Zealand awarded a contract to Lucent to build its new NZ$200 million (US$100M) mobile phone network based on the CDMA standard. Telecom announced in August that it was making the investment in the new cellular technology network for commercial launch in 2001.

Lucent will supply and install its latest wireless products, including mobile switching centers, base stations, micro cells, voicemail and messaging services, and may provide vendor financing. It will also provide AAPT with software and professional services.

"Lucent CDMA technology uses open standards so it can best integrate voice, data and mobile technologies," Telecom Chief Executive Theresa Gattung said. "This is critical to providing customers with innovation and choice. "The flexibility of Lucent's technology will ensure a very comprehensive choice of phones and Lucent will provide Telecom the same coverage as Telecom's existing analogue network."

Data rates of up to 144kbps (which can be used for high-speed Internet access) will be available at or shortly after the launch, with significantly faster data rates being rolled out in the future.

"This is a banner day for customers in both Australia and New Zealand. AAPT and TNZ are committed to delivering the latest in wireless technology able to combine high quality voice service with Internet access that's always on and accessible for timely and relevant information, said Mike Butcher, President and CEO, Lucent Technologies Asia Pacific. "Lucent is the global leader in CDMA networking, and we are uniquely qualified to evolve the technology to make the mobile Internet work for service providers and consumers alike. It opens new possibilities for enhanced information services as well as new e-commerce revenue streams."

Lucent Technologies has approximately 160 CDMA networks either in commercial service or under deployment for more than 40 network operators around the world. In the Asia Pacific region alone, Lucent's CDMA customers include major telecom carriers and operators such as Shinsegi Telecom and Hansol PCS in Korea, CAT in Thailand, and Piltel in the Philippines. Lucent's more than 24,000 Lucent CDMA base stations that are on the air around the world handle on average 160 million calls daily.

Lucent has invested in Australia and New Zealand in both staff and resources, most recently creating a Third Generation (3G) Wireless Research Team within Lucent's Bell Labs R&D facility in Sydney. The team is charged with developing new technologies that will shape the future of 3G wireless systems.

"Today's announcement proves that our investments in people and research are paying off. As a result of these contracts, Lucent will be significantly expanding its local operations in Australia and New Zealand to more than 1200 employees. This is from a base of just 130, 18 months ago. This will allow both Lucent and the industry as a whole to take advantage of the high calibre of local skills and knowledge. For example, our 3G Team and Bell Labs facility provide excellent opportunities to export Australian innovation to the world," Butcher continued.

CDMA is a wireless technology that is the basis for today's cdmaOne standard and is compatible with the next generation of technology known as third generation (3G) wireless networks. 3G networks will support broadband services including high-speed wireless data and multimedia communications for Internet and email access, multimedia services like video telephony, and seamless international roaming. CDMA is an especially attractive technology because its allows network operators to smoothly migrate to 3G networks while preserving their investment in cdmaOne base station equipment.

Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA, designs, builds and delivers a wide range of public and private networks, communications and software, data networking systems, business telephone systems and microelectronic components. Bell Laboratories is the research and development arm for the company. More information on Lucent Technologies is available on the web at http://www.lucent.com