Alcatel Enters Cdma Segment

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Lucent buy paves way for Alcatel's CDMA lines

Rajesh S Kurup in Mumbai | April 04, 2006 02:47 IST

After the acquisition of its US rival Lucent Technologies for $13.4 billion, the French telecommunications infrastructure provider Alcatel SA is to bring in the former's CDMA capabilities to the Indian market. The acquisition will result in Alcatel becoming the world's largest telecom infrastructure provider, in addition to hosting the broadest spectrum of technologies in telecom. This would also help Alcatel set up superior telecom infrastructure, especially in India, which is one of the fastest growing markets.

The company, which is slashing the companies' combined workforce by 8,800 personnel, has no intention to reduce employee headcount in India, even though it will pare around 10 percent of its staff worldwide. Alcatel employs over 2,000 personnel in the country, while Lucent employs over 600 personnel in various disciplines. "Alcatel primarily operates in the GSM segment and Lucent in CDMA space, and this acquisition will help the French company offer services across the spectrum. Now, getting the CDMA major's capability, Alcatel will look at offering services to both GSM and CDMA players in the country," sources close to the development told Business Standard on Monday.

The domestic CDMA market is growing as state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam, Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices are aggressively rolling out infrastructure, including BTS and switches. Both Alcatel and Lucent officials could not be immediately reached for comment. The company will also look at increasing its R&D presence in the country, and look at making India an important destination for its development activities.

After the completion of the acquisition, Alcatel also intends to increase its sales and service presence in the country. Alcatel SA is buying Lucent Technologies in an all-stock deal, and the revenues of the combined entity is slated to be around $25 billion.