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http://business-times.asia1.com.sg/sub/bizit/story/0,4574,95…

Lucent raises stake in Singapore

It has just opened a US$10m testing and interoperability lab here to serve customers across Asia, Lucent`s regional president Martin Geh tells Raju Chellam

TELECOM equipment giant Lucent Technologies Inc has buttressed its presence here with the launch today of its first regional testing centre in Asia.

The 7,000 sq ft state-of-the-art facility, boasting some US$10 million worth of networking equipment, will serve as a hub for Lucent`s Asia-Pacific regional testing operations, Martin Geh, Singapore-based president of Lucent Technologies Asia-Pacific, told BizIT in an interview. `The Singapore lab will serve the needs of customers in Japan, South Korea, China, India, Australasia and South-east Asia,` he said.

Dubbed the VIP Briefing Center, the facility complements two other laboratories in the US, and one each in the Netherlands and Germany.

Lucent, the largest manufacturer of telephone equipment in America, moved its Asia-Pacific headquarters from Hong Kong to Singapore when Mr Geh took over as regional chief 18 months ago. It now has some of the top regional telcos as customers, including SingTel, StarHub, MobileOne, Maxis Communications, NTT DoCoMo, Telstra, Optus, Reliance Mobile, Telekom Malaysia, China Netcom and China Unicom.

Just last weekend, Lucent won a US$230 million deal with China Unicom for its Phase III CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) expansion. Lucent will supply CDMA2000 equipment to China Unicom`s subsidiaries in six provinces. `China Unicom will be able to deliver a variety of value-added data services, including video-on-demand, live streaming video and high-speed mobile Internet access to its subscribers,` said Jim Brewington, president of Lucent`s Mobility Solutions Group.

Mr Geh said CDMA is taking off very well in the Asia-Pacific region, despite the prevalence of GSM. `We have a slew of customers spread across the region, right from China to India and South Korea,` he said. `In Korea, we`re the only foreign network provider. We`re now working on business opportunities in Malaysia, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam and other countries.`

Singapore`s M1 announced in July that it would deploy Lucent`s MiLife SurePay solutions suite to offer enhanced prepaid voice and data services to its customers. The solution - which includes both hardware and software - will let M1 offer personalised services including prepaid voice, and prepaid short-messaging.

SingTel is a long-time Lucent customer. In June 2000, SingTel selected Lucent`s Kenan line of billing solutions to run all of SingTel`s billing requirements. Kenan - which has since been acquired by CSG Systems Inc - can also handle billing in emerging technologies such as 3G wireless communications and the Internet.

`We expect the region to grow quite well in the next few years,` Mr Geh said. `One reason is telecom operators are now starting to invest after having laid low for the last couple of years. Another reason is the huge takeup of mobile phones. And finally, 3G is set to take off in most key countries across the Asia-Pacific over the next two years.`

That is also the view of research house IDC Corp. The telecom services industry in the region is set to continue its growth momentum driven by deregulation and pent-up demand in the developing countries. `This market will grow by 11 per cent in 2003 to US$137 billion,` said Piyush Singh, IDC`s Singapore-based managing director for the Asia-Pacific. `Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services will gain traction and will be seriously evaluated by organisations in 2003. Broadband will continue to proliferate, driven by lower prices, competition and the exploding online gaming phenomenon in the region.`

Lucent offers solutions across all these technologies in both wireless and wireline. It has tie-ups with Cisco Systems Inc in wireless and with Juniper Networks in wireline solutions. And it has Bell Labs as a trump card. In March this year, Bell Labs received its 30,000th US patent, and its scientists have won six Nobel Prizes in physics, nine US Medals of Science and eight US Medals of Technology.

The company competes with the likes of Motorola, Nortel Networks and Alcatel. According to analysts` estimates, it has so far deployed 80,000 spread-spectrum CDMA base stations worldwide, of which more than 40,000 can support 3G services.

Murray Hill, New Jersey-based Lucent reported US$12.2 billion in revenue for its last fiscal year ended Sept 30, 2002, down 42 per cent over FY01. The company employs 36,500 people worldwide, including 4,000 in the Asia-Pacific, and about 300 in Singapore.

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