DALLAS -- Alcatel (NYSE: ALA) led the $2.9 billion worldwide market for intelligent optical hardware with a 22 percent share in the second quarter of 2002, according to Infonetics Research, an international telecom market research and consulting firm. Alcatel's global share has increased over six consecutive quarters from 2001 to 2002, despite overall market decline. Infonetics Research 2Q02 report indicates that Alcatel ranked first in the following market segments: total intelligent metro optical, metro intelligent SDH/SONET switch, metro WDM transport, long-haul intelligent SDH/SONET switch and long-haul WDM transport. "Alcatel is the clear leader in this period of telecom difficulty, gaining market share in our overall measurement of worldwide intelligent optical hardware," said Michael Howard, principal analyst and co-founder of Infonetics Research. "In the past six quarters, Alcatel has moved from 9 percent in 1Q01 to 22 percent market share in 2Q02, founded on the strength of sales in all world regions of a broad optical product line targeted at most service provider needs for metro and long haul, WDM and SDH/SONET." "Although the market for optical networking systems continues to erode, Alcatel resists better than the competition," said Christian Reinaudo, president of Alcatel's optics activities. "We believe our success can be directly attributed to our comprehensive product portfolio, strong customer relationships and global presence." Alcatel SA Infonetics Research Inc.