Alcatel-Lucent and NEC Announce a Long Term Evolution (LTE) Joint Venture as the First Step in a Broader Collaboration

MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS, BARCELONA, Spain, February 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) and NEC (TSE:6701) today announced the start of a broad collaboration to market advanced end-to-end communications solutions.

As an important first step in this collaboration, Alcatel-Lucent and NEC have decided to form a joint venture that will focus on the development of Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless broadband access solutions. These solutions will support the network evolution of leading customers around the world, such as NTT DoCoMo, who has already selected NEC as a vendor for commercial service deployment of its Super 3G (LTE) project, and Verizon, with whom Alcatel-Lucent has already initiated a LTE trial program. Through this joint development effort, the two companies intend to accelerate the availability of next-generation wireless solutions.

Leveraging the common LTE product strategy and platform of the joint venture, Alcatel-Lucent and NEC will each manage delivery, project execution and dedicated support to their respective customers.

Under this joint venture, the two companies will pool their existing research & development resources and leverage market-proven expertise in key technologies on which next-generation wireless access is based, such as IP, multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA). Through this joint development effort, Alcatel-Lucent and NEC are affirming their R&D investment commitments and combining them to accelerate product innovation, differentiation and performance. The goal of the two companies is to achieve faster commercial availability of LTE solutions, serve an expanded, global customer base, and establish a leading position in the early development phase of the LTE market. The two companies will make first commercial releases available in 2009, and will leverage their field-proven wireless expertise to ensure smooth integration of LTE technology with the existing W-CDMA/HSPA and CDMA/EV-DO networks of their respective customers.

"By leveraging complementary portfolios, robust research and innovation capabilities, and strong market positions in Japan and around the globe, the partnership is well positioned to hasten the evolution towards the next-generation of mobile services," said Philip Marshall, who heads up technology research at Yankee Group. "This is a smart pairing that will help accelerate the availability of LTE by capitalizing on early market implementations that we expect to occur in Japan and North America."

"This strategic collaboration with NEC is driven by scale, time-to-market, and product excellence objectives, and it will put us in a strong position to ride the next wave of transformation in the wireless industry," said Patricia Russo, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent. "By drawing upon our combined innovation capabilities, we will be able to effectively accompany leading operators as they migrate their network to next-generation wireless broadband technology, hence sustaining the value of their networks well into the future," she added.

"This collaboration gives us the potential to open up new market opportunities for advanced wireless services globally," said Kaoru Yano, President of NEC Corporation. "Moreover, NEC's core competence lies in integrated IT/network solutions business. Through this alliance, we intend to explore the potential for collaboration with Alcatel-Lucent to best leverage both companies' market-leading capabilities in a wide range of fields. We expect this partnership to contribute to the execution of our next-generation network business strategy by expanding our reach into global markets."

In the future, the collaboration is expected to expand into end-to-end third-generation (3G) CDMA-based solutions, as well as a wide range of advanced IP-based solutions, such as optical transmission, IP service routing, and IMS-based communications services. Alcatel-Lucent and NEC will also investigate collaborating in developing IT solutions for service providers - such as service application solutions (e.g. streaming, e-commerce, etc.)- together with the servers and storage products on which those solutions depend.

About NEC

NEC Corporation is one of the world's leading providers of Internet, broadband network and enterprise business solutions dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of its diverse and global base of customers. NEC delivers tailored solutions in the key fields of computer, networking and electron devices, by integrating its technical strengths in IT and Networks, and by providing advanced semiconductor solutions through NEC Electronics Corporation. The NEC Group employs more than 150,000 people worldwide. For additional information, please visit the NEC home page at: http://www.nec.com

NEC Press contacts Chris Shimizu, Tel :+44(0)7785-340-901, chris.shimizu@eu.nec.com Akiko Shikimori, Tel :+81(0)90-5433-7171, a-shikimori@ay.jp.nec.com Takehiko Kato, Tel :+81(0)3-3798-6511, t-kato@cj.jp.nec.com

About Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) provides solutions that enable service providers, enterprise and governments worldwide, to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. As a leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent offers the end-to-end solutions that enable compelling communications services for people at home, at work and on the move. With operations in more than 130 countries, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with global reach. The company has the most experienced global services team in the industry, and one of the largest research, technology and innovation organizations in the telecommunications industry. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 17.8 billion in 2007 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

Alcatel-Lucent Press Contacts Régine Coqueran, Tel: +33(0)1-40-76-49-24, regine.coqueran@alcatel-lucent.com Stéphane Lapeyrade, Tel : +33(0)1-40-76-12 74, stephane.lapeyrade@alcatel-lucent.com Alcatel-Lucent Investor Relations Rémi Thomas Tel: +33(0)1-40-76-50-61, remi.thomas@alcatel-lucent.com Maria Alcon, Tel: +33(0)1-40-76-15-17, maria.alcon@alcatel-lucent.com John DeBono, Tel: +1-908-582-7793, debono@alcatel-lucent.com Tony Lucido, Tel: +33(0)1-40-76-49-80, alucido@alcatel-lucent.com Don Sweeney, Tel: +1-908-582-6153, dsweeney@alcatel-lucent.com