Telecom equipment maker Lucent Technologies has landed nine new contracts in Europe worth up to $220 million, the company announced at the CeBIT trade show in Germany this morning.
Deutsche Telekom is among the buyers. Lucent will help the carrier launch a new service that will enable its customers to connect to local area networks at sites throughout Germany direcly via Ethernet.
Additionally, Lucent software will be used to power DT’s optical network. The application is designed to manage network components from any manufacturer.
“Service providers are looking for ways to manage their networks more effectively and in a way that enables them to provide useful new services to their customers, in particular their business customers,” said Patricia Russo, Lucent’s CEO and chairman.
Other customers announced today include: British Telecom, which will upgrade optical networks in the Netherlands; Czech Telecom, which is introducing an international optical network; Telekomunikacja Polska, which is extending its xDSL broadband access systems; T-Systems France, which is installing a global secrity platform to offer enterprise customers new services, such as distributed denial of service
Lucent also announced Lucent also announced 10 new business partners in Europe to offer sales support for Lucent’s software unit as well as the professional services needed to install and manage the applications.
“There can be no doubt of the important role Europe plays in our strategic planning with a full one-third of the world’s top 15 service providers based here,” Russo said. “But beyond that market, there are smaller providers and businesses in Europe who would benefit from the advanced communications technology Lucent offers.”
Lucent, like others in its sector, has been slogging through a two-year economic downturn that has caused carriers and large corporations to delay or cancel major networking projects.
Though still a far cry its late 1990s sales clip, Lucent has made some progress in recent months. In January, the Murray Hill, N.J., firm won a major, multi-year purchase from Bell Canada for broadband access hardware and software services. The company also settled a Securities and Exchange Commission probe into accounting.
