Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) today announced that Kazakhtelecom JSC, the leading fixed incumbent service provider in Kazakhstan, has selected Alcatel’s optical networking solution for triple play service delivery, including enhanced high-speed Internet access and evolution to IPTV (Internet protocol television), across the country. The new 6,000 km optical transport network will increase the capacity and extend the reach of Kazakhtelecom’s existing infrastructure, broadening its service offering to new areas.

The turnkey project is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2007. Based on Alcatel’s market-leading optical networking technologies, the new network will be the longest backbone network to be rolled-out in Central Asia, covering around 133 districts, 10 regional and 14 local departments.

The deployment of Alcatel’s end-to-end optical networking solution will dramatically boost Kazakhtelecom’s current network capacity to cost-effectively support existing and new services, including local to international voice services and broadcasting. This will enable Kazakhtelecom to optimize bandwidth according to the multiple traffic loads and to improve the quality of the xDSL service currently offered for high-speed Internet access.

“Kazakhtelecom is successfully carrying out strategic programs for the modernization of its telecommunication network, with a focus on guaranteeing high-quality and universal accessibility to services,” stated Azamat Syrgabayev, Vice-president, and Chief technical officer of Kazakhtelecom. “We firmly believe that Alcatel’s expertise in optical networking, along with its deep understanding of customer needs, can help us broaden our service offering and reinforce key benefits such as investment protection and cost-effectiveness.”

“Strengthening Alcatel’s long-lasting cooperation with Kazakhtelecom, this project marks a new important phase in the deployment of advanced optical transport technologies,” said Romano Valussi, President of Alcatel’s optical networking activities. “The functionality, flexibility and scalability offered by our solutions will help Kazakhtelecom address the accelerated broadband traffic growth, while preparing for new services yet to come, and drive greater operational efficiencies.”

The Alcatel optical/data convergent solution will be based on its 1626 Light Manager (LM) DWDM equipment, 1678 Metro Core Connect (MCC) and its Optical Multi-Service Node (OMSN) systems, all managed by the Alcatel 1350 management suite. Furthermore, Alcatel will be in charge of the installation, commissioning and integration of the equipment.

Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) today announced that Belgacom, the incumbent operator in Belgium, has selected Alcatel’s IP solution for traffic aggregation to support the mass roll-out of triple play services throughout the country.

Under the terms of this contract, Alcatel will provide the equipment and network & service management for a nationwide network that will deliver high quality voice, data and video services to the Belgian residential customers.

Last year, Belgacom selected Alcatel’s IP portfolio as the foundation for its nationwide BiLANВ© Ethernet VPN service, offering advanced Virtual Private LAN Service (VPLS) and IP-VPN services to businesses. Now, with plans to make triple play available to its entire residential subscriber base, Belgacom has again selected Alcatel’s IP portfolio to deliver bundled triple play services including high-speed Internet, digital TV services and voice over IP.

“Maintaining leadership requires an evolution of the network to prepare it for advanced applications such as triple play that have far much more stringent requirements,”said Philippe Ribonnet, Head of Network and IT Division at Belgacom. “An in-depth evaluation of Alcatel’s IP technology has demonstrated its strengths and robustness and the company’s commitment to a successful service roll-out from start to finish. Extending the network with this proven Alcatel solution will give us the scalability, reliability and end-to-end service levels that will satisfy our requirements for triple play.”

“Offering differentiated services is key to staying ahead of the competition,”said Basil Alwan, President of Alcatel’s IP activities. “Alcatel’s extensive experience in deploying triple play solutions combined with proven, high performance and feature-rich technology will help Belgacom introduce those services faster to preserve its competitive edge. Service providers worldwide as an integral component of their next-generation service edge have selected our IP portfolio. This selection by Belgacom illustrates a key benefit of Alcatel’s IP portfolio, which is the ability to bring even greater operational savings by converging business and consumer services on a single IP/MPLS network.”

The Alcatel IP portfolio has key features – including high-availability, quality of service, and scalability – that make it the only solution available today that can reliably deliver triple play consumer and business services concurrently on the same platform. For the triple play roll out, Belgacom selected the 7750 Service Router (SR), 7450 Ethernet Service Switch (ESS) and 5620 Service Aware Manager (SAM)

Worldwide, Alcatel’s IP portfolio has been selected by more than 100 service providers, including massive, multi-year IP network and service transformation projects at AT&T, BT, TeliaSonera and China Telecom. In the fourth quarter of 2005, Alcatel held second place worldwide for IP edge aggregation with a market share of 25.8 percent, according to Synergy Research Group. Alcatel is involved in more than 35 triple play projects and another 40 network transformation projects worldwide. IPTV services are expected to reach over 70 million subscribers by 2010.

Manx Telecom and Lucent Technologies announced a comprehensive agreement that continues the evolution of Manx Telecom’s network to support a wide array of “blended” Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), data and video services over a converged network that combines third-generation (3G) wireless technology and the latest wireline broadband access capabilities.

Under the agreement Lucent will supply Manx Telecom with additional elements of its industry-leading IMS solution to support advanced multimedia services. Lucent also will increase the capacity of Manx Telecom’s wireless network and upgrade the carrier’s broadband wireline network with the Lucent Multimedia Access Platform (MMAP), an all-IP solution that enables service providers to profitably deliver high-bandwidth video/IPTV, VoIP and multimedia services to the mass market.

In addition, Lucent Worldwide Services will provide network installation, design, integration and migration services as well as its suite of VitalSuiteВ® network management products.

The new contract builds on a previous pact under which the two companies have already deployed a super-fast, multimedia network based on 3G High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) technology. Lucent-supplied infrastructure has been supporting commercial services based on 3G UMTS and HSDPA technology.

“We are excited to embark on this next phase of our collaboration with Lucent on the deployment of this showcase network on the Isle of Man,” said Mike Loundes, CTO of Manx Telecom. “We led the way in the wireless industry with the launch of the world’s first commercial HSDPA network and with this project, we continue to break new ground with one of the industry’s first fully converged networks.”

The upgraded network will enable Manx Telecom to offer VoIP services to enterprises and consumers, “blended lifestyle” services — that combine voice, data and video capabilities — and offerings such as “converged voice services” that enable subscribers to access both voice and data services over WiFi and cellular networks using a single phone.

“Manx Telecom is constantly looking to provide the latest and best value services to our customers, and this collaboration is simply the latest demonstration of that commitment,” said Chris Hall, managing director of Manx Telecom. “This network will enable the delivery of these services.”

As part of this project Lucent will replace Manx Telecom’s existing broadband and GSM core network infrastructures whilst augmenting its 3G UMTS network. Lucent also will supply Manx Telecom with Lucent Ethernet Routers (a recent acquisition from Riverstone Networks) to support the high reliability and scalability necessary to deliver the user Quality of Experience (QoE) for the new IP-based blended services.

“This is an all-encompassing end-to-end solution, with the IMS architecture at its core, that will continue to support existing voice services while enabling the introduction of innovative new multimedia services,” said Andy Williams, president, Lucent Technologies Europe.

The new contract incorporates several products from Lucent’s IMS portfolio including the Lucent Session Manager, Lucent Feature Server, Lucent Communication Manager, Lucent Compact Switch, Lucent Network Gateway and Lucent Network Controller. Lucent also will supply key elements of its Multimedia Networking Solutions portfolio include the Lucent Multimedia Access Platform, Lucent Ethernet Routers and Juniper Networks M-series Multiservice Edge Routers and E-series Broadband Services Routers.

Lucent also will provide its VitalSuiteВ® Network Performance Management software, VitalSuiteВ® Integrated Service Assurance software, VitalSuiteВ® Service Activation Management software and VitalSuiteВ® IP Address Management software to manage and provision new services for the converged network.

The Lucent-supplied high-speed network, now in commercial use, has allowed Manx Telecom to introduce new, mobile high-speed data services such as DVD-quality streaming video, fast downloads of very large files including music, as well as Virtual Private Network (VPN) access to corporate networks.