Lucent :: VoIP Biz-News.com

Number of results 25 for Lucent

19/05/2012 - Genesys celebrates first full quarter after sale from Alcatel-Lucent with 13% revenue gain

Last October, Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) sold its Genesys call-center business for $1.5 billion and, in the process, lost over $500 million in annual revenue from the division.

Genesys just wrapped up its first 100 days as a stand-alone company, and it's a good bet AlcaLu is looking fondly at its former business... and coveting the revenues the company continues to generate.

Genesys is eager to let folks know that life after Alcatel-Lucent is just fine, thank you. The Daly City, Calif.-based company said it continued its "consistent track record of year-over-year revenue growth for full-year 2011."

In its first quarter on its own, the company said it achieved 13 percent year-over-year growth, with annual revenues of over $500 million.

In Q1 2012, the newly formed stand-alone company launched its mobile customer-care solution, Social Engagement, and "maintained a leading presence in the market," with "strong customer momentum" behind its workforce optimization, social customer service and SIP-based solutions, as well as its pay-per-use and hosted offerings.

"We're pleased to report that the new, stand-alone Genesys is off to a strong start," said Paul Segre, president and CEO of Genesys. "Our business is growing and we're continuing to innovate in the customer experience space, driven by a planned 14 percent increase in R&D investment this year and the passion of our people, which is evident everyday in the results we are achieving with customers."

Among other highlights in the quarter:

For the full year of 2011, the company achieved approximately 8 percent growth over 2010;

Saw 35 percent growth in pay-per-use and hosted solutions, and 80 percent growth in workforce optimization.

Maintained a healthy EBITDA of more than 20 percent.

Saw South Africa's Vodacom and the UK's Everything Everywhere going live with Genesys' social customer service solution, Social Engagement.

Reached 300,000 seats for its SIP Server solution, fueling a shift away from PBX-based contact centers to pure software SIP-based solutions.

For more:
- see this release

21/02/2012 - Cisco owns carrier infrastructure market; Juniper, Alcatel-Lucent fight for 2nd

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) moved past Juniper Networks (NYSE: JNPR)in terms of carrier infrastructure market share in 4Q2011, a new study says, only the second time in the past four years Alca-Lu has pulled ahead into second place behind perennial leader Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO).

The report, from Synergy Research Group, attributed Alcatel-Lucent's surge to a solid performance in the EMEA region, where it saw strong revenue growth from the previous quarter. Juniper's struggles in the past quarter allowed Alcatel-Lucent to take a clear market share lead of 2.7 percentage points in the quarter. For the full year Juniper did maintain its number two ranking, with a market share of 18.2 percent versus 16.8 percent for Alcatel-Lucent.

Jeremy Duke, founder and chief analyst of Synergy, said Alcatel-Lucent and Juniper both nevertheless saw strong growth in the EMEA region, recording market shares of more than 25 percent and 22 percent respectively in the final quarter.

Synergy's 4Q11 Carrier Infrastructure Market Share report provides quarterly market shares for service provider core routers, edge routers, and carrier Ethernet switches.

Overall carrier infrastructure revenues hovered around the $3 billion mark for the third successive quarter, with full-year revenues inching ahead 3.5 percent from 2010. But the fourth quarter wasn't kind to the segment; revenues were actually down almost 10 percent from a year ago.

"There was plenty of good news for Cisco in the quarter, including a market share gain in the high-growth APAC region, increasing its share of the worldwide service provider core router market to almost 65 percent, and increasing its share of a declining North American edge router and switch market--to levels it hasn't achieved in over three years."

For more:
- see this release

13/02/2012 - After 6 years and $13.2 billion in losses, Alcatel-Lucent turns a profit in 2011

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), which has proffered disappointing earnings over the past six years during which it rolled up some $13.17 billion in losses, Friday reported a $1.46 billion profit in 2011. Its first-ever profit for a full-year follows a $440 million loss in 2010. Shares rose on that news and on the company forecast for improved growth in 2012 and on plans to auction some of its 29,000 patents.

The company Friday said it had free cash flow of $714 million in the quarter, after negative cash from of almost $1.3 billion through the first nine months of the year.

While it did report a profit, some of that was attributable to $464.9 million of deferred tax assets in the United States, and the sale of its Genesys unit, which closed in the quarter and brought in $445.1 million. Alcatel-Lucent said sales for the full year were down 2.1 percent to $20.19 billion from $20.64 billion in 2011.

The Irish Times reported that the sales of the company's patents could "generate several hundred million euros" in 2012; several analysts suggested the company could see up to $1 billion euros in revenue from the sales, which the telecom supplier is offering its patents through a licensing syndicate .

"Licensing is a hot trend in the tech sector right now, but if these numbers turn out to be true, maybe Alcatel should stop everything else and do only licensing," said Thomas Langer of WestLB Equity Markets in Dusseldorf.

For more:
- see this release
- see this Financial Times article
- see this Seeking Alpha transcript

21/11/2011 - Alcatel-Lucent's CloudBand targets service providers

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) has rolled out a new solution, called CloudBand, that it says represents a new class of carrier cloud services, which will allow service providers to bring the benefits of the cloud to their own networks and business operations.

CloudBand brings together the computing power and flexibility of the cloud with the high performance, reliability and security of communications networks, putting carriers in an ideal position to offer a new range of high-performance cloud services to enterprises and consumers, said Alcatel-Lucent.

The company is hoping its new offering will be able to overcome the reluctance that enterprise customers, SMBs and governments have shown to invest heavily in cloud solutions. A September survey from SWC Technology Partners showed that one-in-five respondents said they were reluctant to push their operations into the cloud because of concerns over privacy and security.

Nevertheless, service providers have committed $11 billion to could investments in 2011, said Informa analyst Camille Mendler. And a play like Alcatel-Lucent's, one that focuses on control and better performance, could pay off.

CloudBand has two parts: the CloudBand Management System, delivering orchestration and optimization of services between the communications network and the cloud; and the CloudBand Node, which provides the computing, storage and networking hardware and associated software to host a wide range of cloud services.

Bringing the computing and communications network assets together will be a challenge in making the carrier cloud a reality. CloudBand features algorithms developed by Bell Labs to orchestrate the network, as well as computing and data storage elements distributed throughout the network. The result is a single, flexible service delivery and computing platform that can support a wide range of services. That, in turn, eliminates the need for dedicated hardware platforms for each individual service.

CloudBand will be available for deployment in the first half of 2012.

For more:
- see this TechWorld article
- see this release

10/11/2011 - Alcatel-Lucent's OpenTouch suite hits the market early

Alcatel-Lucent's OpenTouch video conferencing suite, previewed in April and scheduled to start shipping early in the first quarter, has arrived a little early, the company said, and is now generally available.

Built on Alcatel-Lucent's new Enterprise's converged communications architecture, the product leverages OmniPCX Enterprise, Genesys SIP solutions and Alcatel-Lucent carrier technologies. The OpenTouch architecture uses a SIP-based conversation layer, which is between the applications layer and server layer, to deliver multi-party, multi-device, multi-media collaborative conversations. The architecture can facilitate conversations on any network and on any end-point.

OpenTouch includes native conferencing capabilities, supports mixed media, and enables users to move freely between any device within the same conversation. For example, a conversation can begin via instant messaging, voice or text, and be escalated to a video call or team collaboration session. The system lets any user easily add or remove multiple participants as well as make other media connections or links available to participants.

The product is available in three packages, an appliance server based version--its Business Edition--that provides advanced telephony features with embedded unified communications capabilities pre-integrated on a single industry standard appliance server; a hosted edition on a blade server platform--its Business Edition Hosted--that delivers those features and capabilities in a premise version and features extended management functionalities; and its Multimedia Services, a software add-on to complement existing Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise communications servers.

For more:
- see this release

19/10/2011 - Alca-Lu gets $1.5B offer for Genesys, still has sputtering enterprise biz

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU), which has been trying to slip out of its enterprise phone business for months, today confirmed last week's rumors that it's reached a deal with Permira Funds for its Genesys call center software business.

The $1.5 billion deal makes for a nice bump to Alca-Lu's sagging bottom line, but also leaves it with a somewhat unattractive left over in the form of its enterprise phone business. The Genesys business has by far been its crown jewel in the division, with revenues of $500 million last year. The deal for the 1,800 employee business includes continued support from Alcatel-Lucent's enterprise operation.

"Genesys is widely recognized as one of the world's leading providers of customer service software and contact center solutions, and we are excited by the long-term growth potential of this business," said Brian Ruder, partner at Permira. "With an exceptional brand, differentiated technologies and a blue-chip customer base, Genesys is well-positioned to continue to take advantage of the positive trends in its expanding markets."

The deal is subject to regulatory review in the U.S. and other countries, but is expected to close by the end of 2011 or beginning of 2012.

The negotiations between Alcatel-Lucent and Permira have been back-and-forth over the past couple of months as Permira initially looked at Alca-Lu's entire enterprise business, even reaching the point of exclusive negotiations that push Siemens Enterprise Communications, another potential bidder, to the back burner. Those talks broke down, reportedly over price, and drove Alca-Lu's battered stock down more than 8 percent.

Permira then brought its focus to just the call center segment, which Alcatel-Lucent acquired in 2000.

Selling the entire business, which includes VoIP, unified communications and network management products, as well as switches and router, would have been much preferred by Alca-Lu, which reportedly will now invest in the business to make it more attractive to bidders.

Alcatel-Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen is looking to pare down the company as he tries to turn it around.

For more:
- see this release

13/10/2011 - Report: Alcatel-Lucent makes deal to sell Genesys unit to Permira

Rumors that Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) has agreed to sell its call center business to London private equity firm Permira Advisers pushed the firms stock priced up to its highest level in the past eight months.

The Financial Times reported Alcatel-Lucent has agreed to sell its Genesys division, a business it acquired in 2000, for $1.5 billion, and will make an announcement that the deal has been finalized in coming weeks.

Alcatel-Lucent and Permira have been negotiating a deal for Alcatel-Lucent's enterprise phone business for several months. In September rumors surfaced that those negotiations had broken down over price squabbles, and the focus had changed to a Genesys-only deal.

A deal for Genesys, instead of for the entire enterprise phone division, struck some analysts as problematic, since it's arguably the crown jewel of the unit. Selling the entire unit would have been more in-line with Alcatel-Lucent's needs.

The FT said Alcatel-Lucent now would likely invest more in its enterprise phone unit to make it more attractive to other bidders, foremost Siemens Enterprise Communications, which had been mentioned as one of its suitors earlier this autumn.

For more:
- see this FT report

06/09/2011 - Permira talks with Alcatel-Lucent focus now on Genesys

Alcatel-Lucent's (NYSE: ALU) deal to sell its enterprise phone unit to Permira Advisers, which last week was reported to have collapsed, is continuing to drag the company's stock down today.

Permira reportedly is now in talks to acquire Genesys, the company's call center business, abandoning its exclusive negotiations with Alcatel-Lucent for the entire enterprise unit.

Alcatel-Lucent has been trying to sell the unit for months to no avail; its stock stuttered on the Paris market by nearly 8 percent today, nearly cutting ts gain for the year in half. CEO Ben Verwaayen is looking to pare down the company as he tries to turn it around.

But a deal for Genesys only, contends No Jitter, would only make Alcatel-Lucent's situation more difficult, because Genesys is the "crown jewel" of Alcatel-Lucent's enterprise division.

For more:
- see this Bloomberg report
- see this No Jitter article

29/08/2011 - Infonetics: Competitors squeezing IP edge market share from Cisco

Infonetics Research has released new data from its second quarter 2011 "Service Provider Routers and Switches" vendor market share report that show the IP edge market to be posting continuing growth even though the market share leader, Cisco Systems (Nasdaq:CSCO), is starting to get squeezed a bit.

The IP edge market segment, which includes IP edge routers and carrier Ethernet switches, is experiencing vendor growth across the board. Cisco has traditionally dominated the market and continued to show 12 percent revenue growth during the second quarter. However, while Cisco stills owns almost a third of the market with a 32.2 percent share, its hold on the market has slipped sharply in the last 18 months from its first quarter of 2010 marketshare mark of 41.5 percent.

Cisco's competitors, including Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent (Nasdaq:EGHT) and others, have been eating away at its share and have been posting more impressive quarterly revenue increases. In the second quarter alone, Infonetics said Huawei's IP edge revenue grew 66 percent, while Alcatel-Lucent's increased 22 percent. Infonetics said the end-to-end [portfolios and mobile backhaul emphasis that some companies have may be helping them versus Cisco.

Meanwhile, Infonetics said the total service provider router and switch market grew 14 percent sequentially to $3.8 billion worldwide during the second quarter. Year-over-year, the market's increased measured out at 19 percent. The IP edge portion of that market jumped15 percent overall sequentially in the second quarter, and 21 percent year-over-year.

For more:
- see the Infonetics press release

25/11/2010 - Unified Communications Market Has Strongest Quarter Since 2008

Dell'Oro Group reported that the Unified Communications market expanded to its highest level since 2008 in the third quarter this year. Strong second half seasonality helped offset weakness in Europe as the Unified Communications market expanded 7 percent sequentially.

08/07/2010 - Pocket Office Phone Apps

WebWorkerDaily has a cool write up about the office phone-to-iPhone app phenomenon. They discuss Alcatel-Lucent's latest app supporting their collaboration suite and also Microsoft's SharePoint. Article

24/05/2010 - HP and Alcatel-Lucent announce UC solutions focus

HP and Alcatel-Lucent are teaming up to provide new Unified Communications and Collaboration (UC&C) solutions to their customers globally. Although the companies already have a global alliance, the new agreement will enable HP and Alcatel-Lucent to use their combined portfolio to deliver and market end-to-end UC&C solutions to clients.

"Clients want an open, holistic approach to services delivery that maximizes their investment in UC&C," said Gary M. Budzinski, senior vice president and general manager, Technology Services, HP. "The strength of Alcatel-Lucent and HP's combined portfolio provides organizations with open and highly scalable solutions that address the touch points where communication is critical."

The offering combines HP's UC&C consulting services with Alcatel-Lucent's UC technologies like OmniPCX Enterprise and Advanced Communication Server.

For more:
- read the release

25/02/2010 - Report: Synergy examines VoIP market share

Synergy Research Group released their newest report describing the market share break down of the VoIP markets and showing what's been driving the carrier VoIP market.

In "Carrier VoIP Q4 2009 and YE 2009 market shares," Synergy reveals that the market for Carrier VoIP totalled $10 billion in 2009. While traditionally the migration of old PSTN lines to VoIP was the main driver of Carrier VoIP, Synergy found that further growth was added by Mobile Operators seeking the Capex and OpEx benefits of IP. "Mobile deployments for Carrier VoIP have made a serious impact on market sizes and market players for the VoIP Media Gateway market," says the release.

As for market share, Synergy saw GENBAND as the leader of the pack for Media Gateways with 22 percent followed by Huawei with 15 percent. When GENBAND acquires Nortel CVAS its market share will be twice its nearest competitor. In the IMS VoIP market, Synergy saw Alcatel-Lucent as the leader with 47 percent of the market share. Ericsson followed Alcatel-Lucent with Huawei nipping at its heels.

For more:
- read the release

10/12/2009 - VoIP Investment Remains Strong, IP Line Penetration Rose to 40% in Q3

According to the recent Canalys report on IP telephony, investment in enterprise telephony remained restricted in EMEA in Q3 2009, with call control line shipments down 17.5% compared with the same period in 2008.

The research shows volume declined 21.5% in Q1, while Q2 was down 18.6%. In total, 4.8 million lines were shipped in the quarter, a 4.4% sequential increase. IP line penetration increased to 40%, up from 35% one year earlier, as businesses continued to replace aging TDM infrastructure and expand trial projects.

17/08/2009 - Analyst maintains Sonus will bid on Nortel's VoIP business

Catharine Trebenick, senior research analyst at Avian Securities, is holding onto her theory that Sonus is still in the hunt for Nortel's VoIP division, maintaining Sonus continues to be "aggressively pursuing" Nortel's VoIP assets. In fact, Trebenick argues that Sonus' recent job cuts may even be tied to its pursuit of Nortel's VoIP division. "We believe [Sonus'] latest round of North American layoffs may be attributed to [Sonus] seeking Nortel's VoIP assets in addition to [Sonus'] relocation of organizational functions such as R&D to India."

Avian's claims follows reports that Nortel will launch an $800 million stalking horse bid for its VoIP division. Samih Elhage, president of Nortel's Carrier VoIP and Applications Solutions unit was quoted in Canada's Financial Post as saying that "we are very close to getting a stalking-horse bid, which will provide clarity on the situation."

But even if Sonus becomes the victor, Trebenik added that Sonus would have to get outside help to integrate the division into its company.

Of course, Sonus will have company if it does make a move. Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), while losing out to Ericsson in its fight for Nortel's LTE and CDMA assets, could still launch a bid as could Alcatel-Lucent and Ericsson. In the event NSN becomes the victor, Trebenick believes the company would divvy up the assets and possibly sell off the media gateway elements to a vendor such as Genband. Genband previously purchased NSN's media gateway product set last year and is under a five year contract to provide media gateways to NSN.

For more:
- Cable Digital News has this analysis

12/08/2009 - Etisalat chooses Alca-Lu for VoIP, UC deployment

Etisalat, a U.A.E.-based telco with a large footprint in the Middle East and Africa, announced it has chosen Alcatel-Lucent to deploy a unified communications and VoIP system in the telco's offices throughout the region. The company said the deployment would enable 10,000 IP endpoints in eight main sites, as well as 3,500 users of Alca-Lu's My Instant Communicator UC solution.

Etisalat chief marketing officer Essa Al Haddad said in a release that Alca-Lu's solution would help Etisalat employees collaborate and be more productive.

The deal should generate significant equipment and services revenue for Alca-Lu, given the scope of Etisalat's organization and number of licenses the telco is purchasing. The installation also gives Alca-Lu a footprint into the region, which could generate more sales if the Etisalat deployment delivers. Alca-Lu also recently signed a 10-year agreement with HP to develop IP telephony solutions, which could provide future UC products to the Etisalat as well.

For more:
- see the press release here

29/06/2009 - Study finds cash-strapped consumers more likely to cut VoIP than landline

Alcatel-Lucent's Market Advantage Program released results of a global study of how the recessionary climate is affecting consumer spending on specific telecommunications services that surprisingly found consumers much less likely to cut back on landline spend than either free or paid VoIP services. Seventy-four percent of the 3,200 respondents said they considered their landline telephone an "essential network-based service" they would not reduce spending on due to economic pressure. Only 32 percent of participants said the same for their paid VoIP service. As you would expect, respondents said they were less likely to cut back on free VoIP services, as 48 percent considered them essential.

While the number of landline telephones globally dwarfs the paid VoIP extension total, the results of the Alca-Lu survey do call into question the value proposition of VoIP, at least in terms of how integral consumers consider it. It's a question VoIP service providers need to be asking, as nearly two-thirds of participants planned on cutting spending on network services in 2009, according to the survey.

Despite all the noise over threats of landline loss due to mobile substitution and free VoIP alternatives, this survey suggests global consumers might not be in any rush to cut the cord.

For more:
- see the press release and results explanation here

18/06/2009 - Battered IP comm market looks for growth engines

Today's report by the Dell'Oro group that carrier IP telephony revenues were down 25 percent in the first quarter is just the latest in a long line of negative reports for companies in this space. The carrier market started slipping in the second quarter of 2008 and has still not seen an upswing. Some reports don't see a rebound in the market until 2011 when global sales are expected to increase due to growth in developing markets. Enterprises are retrenching and delaying upgrades to their communications equipment and services in the process, making revenue growth seem elusive in the interim.

So what are vendors and service providers to do during the lull in spending? Are there viable alternatives to cost cutting and headcount reductions while waiting for the Great Recession to end?

The glimmer of hope in the Dell'Oro report came from sales of session border controllers and SIP trunking equipment and services. Frost and Sullivan also estimated the SIP trunking market will bring in twice as much revenue as hosted PBXs by 2012. Another report from Infonetics in March saw IMS revenues climbing. As enterprises delay cap ex, hosted services and cloud computing options have shown potential to drive revenue growth as well, but companies haven't offered many hard numbers about the uptake of these services.

One notable trend that could be attributed to the market downswing is an increased focus on high-level partnerships and reselling agreements. HP and Alca-Lu's deal today is expected to drive billions of dollars in revenues, at least by the companies themselves. HP and Microsoft also announced a major partnership around UC in the past month, and Cisco released a statement saying that UC and collaboration would jointly comprise a $34 billion market opportunity. Another buzz word and potential revenue driver is HD voice, which many industry watchers think could revitalize the VoIP industry entirely.

Perhaps a blended approach of new technologies and offerings can revitalize the space, or the economy begins climbing sooner than expected and brings IP telephony revenues with it. Either way, we'll be keeping an eye out for "green shoots" in the IP communications space through this rainy early summer in D.C., even though reports are rather bleak at the moment.

- Pete
@fiercevoip

18/06/2009 - Carrier IP telephony market down 25% in Q1

The carrier IP telephony market got hammered in the first quarter, as recessionary forces dragged down revenues about 25 percent compared to Q1 2008, according to a report by analyst firm Dell'Oro Group. The report attributed the decline to a mix of seasonal weakness, the global recession and resulting cap ex pullbacks, and wireless substitution.

The report also found that vendors with a global presence fared better than those who rely heavily on the U.S. market. Though the sector dipped as a whole, Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei and Nokia Siemens gained share, while Cisco, Nortel and Sonus Networks contracted on a quarter-over-quarter basis.

Sales of SIP trunking and other business VoIP services remained strong despite the overall sector decline, according to the report.

For more:
- see the press release here

18/06/2009 - HP & Alca-Lu sign 10-year deal, will jointly develop IP telephony products

Alcatel-Lucent and Hewlett Packard announced a 10-year global alliance Thursday that aims to bring customers converged telecommunications and IT equipment. The companies will jointly market any resulting products, which will include Alca-Lu IP telephony and unified communications products combined with HP IT solutions. The companies said they would target these offerings at the mid to large-size enterprises and public sector companies.

This is HP's second major announcement on unified communications products in less than a month, as HP and Microsoft announced a $180 million UC partnership on May 19.

HP and Alca-Lu want to create a "one-stop shop" for service providers to transform their IT and telecom infrastructures, as well as "truly integrated communication environments," according to the release.

"We expect customers will be able to create new business opportunities and greater efficiencies from this alliance," said Mark Hurd, HP chairman and chief executive officer, in a release. "By combining our deep expertise in IT and communications, HP and Alcatel-Lucent will help customers transform their technology needs into a competitive edge."

For more:
- see the joint press release here

08/06/2009 - IMS equipment sales to grow 74% in 2009

Infonetics Research recently released a report entitled "IMS Equipment and Subscribers" that found strong continued uptake for IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) equipment and predicted global sales of IMS equipment will increase 74 percent in 2009. The report also found that Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent and Nokia Siemens are the current leaders in IMC core equipment deployments.

The global IMS market is expected to grow at a rapid pace for the next five years, and the report predicted revenues will grow from around $200 million in 2008 to more than $2.5 billion in 2013. The report anticipated growth would be strongest in Europe, the Middle East and Africa initially, with Asia Pacific taking the lead at some point around 2010, as Chinese IMS deployments increase dramatically.

For more:
- see the press release here

28/05/2009 - Avaya buys contact center software maker Agile

Avaya announced it bought Agile Software, the provider of its mid-market contact center software Contact Center Express, for an undisclosed sum. Avaya already owned 23 percent of Agile, and Avaya said the purchase will allow it to tightly integrate Agile's software with other Avaya products.

Avaya also said the deal will help it streamline and hasten research and development for its contact center products. Current Analysis analyst Mike Barbagallo told Network World the Agile purchase will make Avaya's midsize contact center offerings more competitive with those sold by Cisco, Nortel and Alcatel-Lucent, among others.

As part of the announcement, Avaya also announced the availability of version 4.0 of Contact Center Express, which adds IVR features previously only available through third-party products.

For more:
- see the Network World article here

13/05/2009 - Alcatel-Lucent releases cloud-based VPN for biz apps

Alcatel-Lucent announced a new cloud-based VPN service plan for service providers targeting enterprises. The Application-Assured VPN client will lower expenses by eliminating the need to have equipment at each business location in order to offer applications like VoIP, Citrix, IM and video conferencing, according to the company.

The Application-Assured client takes deep-packet inspection functions usually done on premise into the network, the company said. The offering also contains a Web portal that allows enterprises to monitor application prioritization and bandwidth usage.

"Current offerings provide limited visibility and control at the service level, or there is the option to add appliances that require time and money and add to the overall complexity," said Jim Metzler, vice president of Ashton & Metzler Associates, in a prepared statement. "In contrast, this integrated approach provides the ability to drill down and have visibility, monitoring and control at a very granular application level. This is going to provide a significant advantage for enterprises who are buying a network-based VPN service."

Alcatel-Lucent said service providers that have deployed its Service Router portfolio simply can install a new "services card" to begin offering the services.

For more:
- see the Alcatel-Lucent press release here

Related article
Alcatel-Lucent unveils secure VoIP system

29/04/2009 - Alcatel-Lucent unveils secure VoIP system

Alcatel-Lucent announced Tuesday a secure VoIP solution for medium and large firms that has no known vulnerabilities, according to the company. The system uses Alca-Lu's VPN Firewall Brick, which was designed by Bell Labs to preserve quality of service while defending against attacks.

"We are seeing more and more vulnerabilities posted against VoIP, and there are some easy targets," said Natalie Stallwood, Alcatel-Lucent's business development manager.

"Often when VoIP is deployed it is by a comms team, not an IT or security [team]. VoIP delivers so many great benefits to businesses including reducing costs, but they need to make sure it's secure."

The secure VoIP solution randomly and dynamically assigns a port for a call only once the session has been initiated, unlike other firewalls, which may assign several ports during a single call, leaving vulnerabilities for a network attack.

For more:
- see the Vnunet.com article here

04/03/2009 - Infonetics: Carrier VoIP equipment spend drops, IMS up

Infonetics released two reports Wednesday that show mixed fortune for VoIP equipment manufacturers. Infonetics notes that carrier VoIP equipment spending suffered its first year-over-year drop, falling 6 percent from 2007's record showing, but IMS deployments show promise to become a serious revenue driver by 2011.

The carrier VoIP equipment market has experienced double-digit annual revenue growth since 2002, but the streak was stopped in 2008 by the general economic downturn and a resulting decrease in capex. Diane Myers, directing analyst for Infonetics and author of the reports, said carrier capex on VoIP equipment likely won't rebound until 2010.

"We've seen indicators already that 2009 is going to be down from 2008," Myers said. "Capex should slowly increase in 2010, but as more VoIP deployments reach maturity, we don't expect the same pace of equipment revenue growth to resume. Carrier are refocusing some of the spend at other strategic locations."

One of those areas, IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) deployments, is growing rapidly, especially in European markets, with the segment up 94 percent in 2008. While fixed-line VoIP services are still the most popular applications delivered over IMS, Rich Communication Services will be an important part of the shift from fixed-line VoIP services to mobile networks and integration with standardized devices, according to the report.

Myers said the revenue total for IMS deployments is small currently, but will grow rapidly and become substantial in 2011 and beyond as mobile operators upgrade infrastructure.

Infonetics predicts IMS equipment sales will buck the general economic downturn and increase in 2009 and 2010. Currently, Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens, NEC and Huawei are the core IMS equipment leaders by installations.

For more:
- see the Infonetics brief on the carrier VoIP report here
- see the brief on IMS spend here

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19/05/2012 - Genesys celebrates first full quarter after sale from Alcatel-Lucent with 13% revenue gain

21/02/2012 - Cisco owns carrier infrastructure market; Juniper, Alcatel-Lucent fight for 2nd

13/02/2012 - After 6 years and $13.2 billion in losses, Alcatel-Lucent turns a profit in 2011

21/11/2011 - Alcatel-Lucent's CloudBand targets service providers

10/11/2011 - Alcatel-Lucent's OpenTouch suite hits the market early

19/10/2011 - Alca-Lu gets $1.5B offer for Genesys, still has sputtering enterprise biz

13/10/2011 - Report: Alcatel-Lucent makes deal to sell Genesys unit to Permira

06/09/2011 - Permira talks with Alcatel-Lucent focus now on Genesys

29/08/2011 - Infonetics: Competitors squeezing IP edge market share from Cisco

25/11/2010 - Unified Communications Market Has Strongest Quarter Since 2008

08/07/2010 - Pocket Office Phone Apps

24/05/2010 - HP and Alcatel-Lucent announce UC solutions focus

25/02/2010 - Report: Synergy examines VoIP market share

10/12/2009 - VoIP Investment Remains Strong, IP Line Penetration Rose to 40% in Q3

17/08/2009 - Analyst maintains Sonus will bid on Nortel's VoIP business

12/08/2009 - Etisalat chooses Alca-Lu for VoIP, UC deployment

29/06/2009 - Study finds cash-strapped consumers more likely to cut VoIP than landline

18/06/2009 - Battered IP comm market looks for growth engines

18/06/2009 - Carrier IP telephony market down 25% in Q1

18/06/2009 - HP & Alca-Lu sign 10-year deal, will jointly develop IP telephony products

08/06/2009 - IMS equipment sales to grow 74% in 2009

28/05/2009 - Avaya buys contact center software maker Agile

13/05/2009 - Alcatel-Lucent releases cloud-based VPN for biz apps

29/04/2009 - Alcatel-Lucent unveils secure VoIP system

04/03/2009 - Infonetics: Carrier VoIP equipment spend drops, IMS up

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