Alcatel-Lucent announces loss, plans to cut 5,000 jobs
French telecom equipment company Alcatel-Lucent plans to cut 5,000 jobs after reporting a net loss of $308 million in the second quarter, it said on Thursday. A performance program announced by the company will also involve exiting or restructuring markets, and managing its patent portfolio as an independent profit center.
Alcatel-Lucent said sales in its wireless and optic divisions had a double-digit decline in revenue because of moderate spending from service providers. Sales in its software, services and solution segment also declined, and the services business was almost flat, it added.
Revenue in North-America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region witnessed a double-digit decline, the company said, adding that the decline in Asia was mainly driven by China, where sales fell by 21%.
Competitive pricing was one of the main reasons that eroded profitability, the company said. Overall revenue was down 7.1% year-over-year. Read more...
Alcatel-Lucent integrates Wi-Fi with mobile networks
Alcatel-Lucent is integrating Wi-Fi with mobile networks with its lightRadio architecture, allowing users to move seamlessly between the two networks and authenticate using the SIM card, the company said on Tuesday.
As mobile data demands have increased, mobile operators have increasingly turned to Wi-Fi as a means to handle growing traffic volumes. It has now come to the point where many operators no longer have a choice, but have to use Wi-Fi, according to Parker Moss, vice president of Wireless Marketing at Alcatel-Lucent.
Wi-Fi is already used by many operators, but a new specification called Hotspot 2.0 -- which is being developed by the Wi-Fi Alliance -- aims to take the use of technology to the next level. Alcatel-Lucent's implementation is called lightRadio Wi-Fi, and it allows users to authenticate using the SIM card on their smartphones and move between two networks without interruptions, according to Moss. Read more...