Alcatel LMDS Launched to Lead Global Broadband Wireless Market - Company Business and Marketing

Cambridge Telcom Report, June 12, 2000

Alcatel Tuesday announced that it has expanded its local multipoint distribution service (LMDS) product portfolio to reflect the integration of the award-winning broadband wireless access solution from the former Newbridge Networks. The solution, marketed globally under the new Alcatel LMDS brand, has been designed to address an equipment market estimated at $1B in 2001.

"The Alcatel-Newbridge combination currently leads other systems vendors in the broadband wireless space." said Marc A. Cabi, Credit Suisse First Boston.

"The combined products that make up the Alcatel LMDS have already been proven with more than 100 customers worldwide in over 2500 base station sector installations," explained Jean-David Calvet, Executive Vice-President Fixed Wireless, Carrier Internetworking Division Alcatel "Together, we offer service providers tailored broadband wireless solutions that best address their market requirements and opportunities. And we can do so more quickly, and in greater volume."

LMDS is a high frequency broadband wireless service generally operating in RF spectrum above 10 GHz. It can be quickly deployed using cost-effective point-to-multipoint distribution systems. Alcatel 9900 LMDS is optimized to enable service providers to capture underserved and lucrative markets such as small to medium sized enterprises, single office/home offices (SOHO), multiple business units (MBU) and multiple dwelling units (MDU) with services such as business IP including IP VPN's and voice over IP (VoIP) , switched voice, leased lines, and high speed data and multimedia applications.

"Globally, total annual service revenues derived from LMDS are expected to top $10B US in 2004," said Jamie Mendelson, co-author of Strategis Group report World Wireless Broadband: LMDS, MMDS, and Broadband WLL.. "As a flexible solution that enables service providers to take advantage of a variety of spectrum opportunities, Alcatel LMDS is well positioned for this global market."

The Alcatel LMDS portfolio of products and supporting services features:

- Reduced total cost of ownership through integrated wireless/wireline network and service management and zero-touch provisioning

- Greater flexibility including: choice of centralized or distributed architecture matching capacity and service requirements of individual cells within the service provider's coverage area; and multiple-frequency support in cross-polarized and co-polarized variants to address global variations in licensing on a single platform

- Increased network capacity with dynamic bandwidth allocation sharing bandwidth among multiple users dynamically and enabling over subscription This portfolio is supported by a global performance in rapid delivery of high-quality, end-to-end solutions including turnkey packages - backed by an unmatched combination of local presence and global reach. For example, Formus Communications, a European broadband communications services provider recently announced (May 23, 2000) that it has signed a global supply agreement with Alcatel covering equipment such as LMDS, Data Switching/routing, VoIP, and xDSL.

The comprehensive Alcatel LMDS is a multiservice Broadband Wireless Network comprised of Digital Base Station, Customer Premise Equipment and Network and Service Management. A Digital Base Station, consisting of digital modulation equipment with optional switching capabilities and point-to-multipoint transmitters and receivers, is the central location that collects all traffic to and from customers within a given wireless coverage area. It is also the linking point between the customer and the network backbone. Customer Premise Equipment includes Radio Termination (RT) transceivers and Network Termination (NT) units, which support a full range of services. The Network and Service Management suite support complete end to end management of both the wireless and wireline portions of the network, providing a full range of billing, statistics and maintenance support.

Alcatel builds next generation networks, delivering integrated end-to-end voice and data networking solutions to established and new carriers, as well as enterprises and consumers worldwide. With 120,000 employees and sales of EURO 23 billion in 1999, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries.