Alcatel Ships 20M DSL Lines

PARIS -- Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA), the worldleader in broadband access, today announced it has reached a major deployment milestone by shipping 20 million digital subscriber lines (DSL), nearly four times that of its nearest competitor. With more than 70 DSLoperator customers worldwide and a global market share of 37.3 percent,Alcatel has proven the success of its technology and the popularity of DSL.The 20 million lines encompass the full range of DSL solutions including asymmetric and symmetric digital subscriber lines (ADSL, SHDSL) to deliverstandards-based broadband services to residential and professionalsubscribers. Both are supported by the Alcatel 7300 Advanced Services Access Manager (ASAM), which is the world's most widely deployed broadbandaccess platform, and combined DSL/POTS lines on the Alcatel Litespan NextGeneration Digital Loop Carrier (NGDLC)."We think DSL will carry on growing strongly," says Tim Johnson, publisherof point-topic.com. "Point Topic reported nearly seven million DSLsubscribers were added worldwide during the first half of this year. Thismeans that DSL is already a mass market medium in the leading countries,and others are catching up rapidly. With all its technical and marketadvantages, we see DSL leading the development of a broadband world."In a separate release:Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA), the world-wide leader in digital subscriber line (DSL) technology, today announced a suite of feature enhancements for the widely-deployed Alcatel7300 Advanced Services Access Manager (ASAM) that helps speed DSL deployment and reduce operator costs.Alcatel has strengthened its market-leading access portfolio with the introduction of features on the 7300 ASAM that empower operators to deploy broadband services with extremely quick payback. Most significantly, Alcatel is first to deliver standards-compliant customer premises equipment(CPE) auto-configuration - a vital feature that enables the service provider to quickly and dynamically configure the central office (CO) and CPE. As a result, many costly manual field operations tasks are eliminated.With this release, Alcatel is also introducing a new "low-profile" remote DSLAM - making it possible for operators to deploy DSL everywhere. Combined with a reduction in power consumption and increase in density, service providers now have the most comprehensive set of solutions, all on a single platform, to deliver nation-wide broadband services with minimal capital investment and operational expense."Telstra recognizes the importance of understanding the latest technology and applying it to meet the needs of our current and future customers," says Ken Benson, Telstra's managing director of Wireless and Wireline. "We are announcing the deployment of the latest in proven broadband technology, based on the Alcatel 7300 ASAM, to service both metropolitan and regional areas experiencing high customer demand."In a separate release:Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA), theworldleader in broadband access, has announced it has been selected byTelstrato extend the reach of Telstra's national broadband infrastructure.Alcatelmade the announcement from the Broadband DSL World Forum in Berlin.The expansion, part of a multi-million dollar contract over threeyears,will be based on the latest release of the Alcatel 7300 AdvancedServicesAccess Manager (ASAM) the world's most widely deployed broadbandaccessplatform.Alcatel's Cross Domain Manager will continue to act as thecarrier'soverall network management system for both broadband andnarrowbandservices. Service activation on the ASAM 7300 platform will be managedbythe Cross Domain Manager via the Alcatel Work Station (AWS)ElementManager. This seamless blend into the existing operations flowenablessignificant operational efficiencies and easy integration acrossTelstra'snetwork."Telstra recognizes the importance of understanding the latesttechnologyand applying it to meet the needs of our current and futurecustomers,"said Ken Benson, Telstra's managing director of Wireless and Wireline."Weare today announcing the deployment of the latest in provenbroadbandtechnology to service both metropolitan and regional areasexperiencinghigh customer demand."In a separate release:Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA), theworldleader in broadband access, announced today that it has won amultimilliondollar DSL (digital subscriber line) contract from Zhejiang Telecomforapproximately 180,000 lines. This contract - won through AlcatelShanghaiBell, Alcatel's flagship Chinese company - follows an 80,000 linecontractfrom the operator to Alcatel in May 2002. With this contract, Alcatelhasnow supplied a total of 360,000 DSL lines in Zhejiang Province,equivalentto a 60 percent market share.This project is the second phase of Zhejiang Province's DSL expansionandthe biggest broadband project in Zhejiang so far. The contract coverstheProvince's most important cities including Hangzhou, Ningbo, andWenzhou.With this expansion, Zhejiang Telecom will raise its network capacityfrom250,000 lines to 600,000 lines, which makes Zhejiang Telecomthefastest-growing broadband service provider in China.Michel Rahier, President of Alcatel's broadband networkingactivities,said, "We are pleased to be selected again for this latest phaseofZhejiang Telecom's broadband access network expansion. Zhejiang Telecomisour biggest domestic customer in the DSL market in China and ourcontinuedrelationship is based on a strong strategic partnership. We willworkclosely with Zhejiang Telecom to build the Zhejiang broadbandnetwork,providing broadband access of the highest reliability in order tofullybenefit end users."Alcatel SA