[February 8, 2005]

Alcatel Hired by BellSouth for Network Initiative

BY JOHANNE TORRES

French voice and data application provider Alcatel announced that it scored a contract awarded by BellSouth for it to be the preferred supplier of the telecom’s IP DSLAMs over the next three years as part of BellSouth's network transformation initiative.

According to the new agreement, Alcatel’s DSLAMs offering will enable BellSouth to deliver triple-play services to customers in their coverage area including potential future IP Video services that the telecom is currently testing. Specifically, Alcatel will provide the IP DSLAM products that will enable the telecom to upgrade their existing infrastructure to handle the demands of innovative broadband services.

"We are thrilled to extend our relationship with BellSouth into this very important network transformation project," said Mike Quigley, president, Alcatel North America. "Our expertise not only in the access network, but also in enabling the delivery of next generation IP services such as voice and video will allow us to help BellSouth continue to revolutionize the consumer communications experience."

"This extends our relationship with Alcatel, which has served both companies well as we've brought DSL services to more than 75 percent of our customers," said Bill Smith, chief technology officer, BellSouth. "Alcatel will provide BellSouth with two products from its Intelligent Services Access Manager (ISAM) family. The 7330 and 7302 products will enable BellSouth to test advances in bonded ADSL2+ technologies to provide customers with triple play services at rates up to 24 Mbps per household over its network."

Today’s announcement follows Alcatel’s Genesys Telecom Labs’ recent deal with Microsoft to integrate the Genesys Enterprise Telephony Software (GETS) with the Microsoft Office Live Communications Server 2005 and Microsoft's upcoming live communications client (code-named "Istanbul") to deliver telephony collaboration for enterprise users.

The combined solution would enable customers to collaborate with colleagues, access availability and presence info, and seamlessly manage phone calls among computers and desktop phones, using either existing PBX or IP networks. The converged communication apps can then be deployed without the need to rip and replace the existing infrastructure, due to the inherent interoperability of GETS with PBXs and IP telephony, thus avoiding significant capital expenditures.

BellSouth Corporation
www.bellsouth.com

Alcatel
www.alcatel.com

Microsoft Corporation
www.microsoft.com