Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) has appointed Dave Geary, currently the head of its Wireline business, as the new president of its Wireless division effective Jan. 1, 2013.

He replaces Wim Sweldens, who is leaving the company. Alcatel-Lucent would not comment on whether Sweldens quit or was replaced.

Geary will be responsible for all mobile products, including the lightRadio portfolio that the vendor is hoping will make it a bigger player in the mobile infrastructure market. (See AlcaLu: We're Killing the Base Station .) And there's no doubt it could be bigger: According to the latest quarterly numbers from ABI Research , AlcaLu is the fourth-largest radio access network (RAN) vendor globally, with a 14.3 percent share of a market that was worth US$11.3 billion in the third quarter of 2012.

But it has a long way to go to catch up with the third-largest player, Nokia Networks , which, according to ABI's calculations, held a 22.4 percent share of the RAN market in the third quarter, just behind second place Ericsson AB (Nasdaq: ERIC), with 22.9 percent. Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. is the current market leader, having secured a 24.3 percent share in the three months to the end of September.

Geary will report to Philippe Keryer, president of the newly formed Networks & Platforms Business Group. (The vendor recently announced a restructuring of its operations.) (See Alcatel-Lucent Unveils Revamp and Alcatel-Lucent Sharpens Its Focus.)

Previously at AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T), Geary has been at Alcatel-Lucent for more than a decade, holding a number of positions, including president of the Switching Division, president of Application Solutions (Lucent), chief operating officer of Lucent's Integrated Network Solutions Group and senior VP of North American sales for Lucent's Service Provider Networks division.

Geary's replacement as head of the Wireline division will be Federico Guillén Moñino, an Alcatel veteran who is currently the vendor's business chief in Spain with responsibility for the Telefónica SA (NYSE: TEF) account.

For more on AlcaLu's wireless division:

• Looking for lightRadio
  
• AlcaLu: We're Killing the Base Station
  
• Alcatel-Lucent Overhauls Backhaul for Small Cells
  
• Sprint Deploys AlcaLu lightRadio
  
• C Spire Picks AlcaLu for LTE Deployment
  
• AlcaLu, Rostechnologii in LTE Pact
  
• Docomo Locks Down 4G With AlcaLu
  
• Euronews: AlcaLu Lands New LTE Deal
  
• AlcaLu Lab Gives LightSquared a Thumbs-Up

— Ray Le Maistre, International Managing Editor, Light Reading