RHK: Alcatel's Tops in Transport

DALLAS -- Alcatel (NYSE:ALA - News) today announced that it has attained the world's number one position in both terrestrial and undersea optical transport markets for the second consecutive quarter in 2002, according to RHK, a market research and consulting firm. As a result, Alcatel led the $2.86 billion worldwide market for global optical networking with a 19.4 percent share -- further increasing the lead over its competitors. According to RHK's 2Q02 report on "Optical Networks Global Quarterly Market Shares," Alcatel increased its global market share in both terrestrial and undersea optical transport in the second quarter 2002. Geographically, Alcatel maintained its leadership in Europe with 27.4 percent and in rest-of-world (CALA, CIS, MEA /1) with 18.3 percent. Furthermore, Alcatel captured the top spots in next-generation optical edge devices (multi-service SDH/SONET systems) with 34.2 percent and in dense wavelength digital multiplexing extended long haul/ultra long haul with 21.4 percent. "During the second quarter in the global optical transport market, Alcatel's lead on its closest competitor jumped from three to seven points, thanks to its global presence, its impressive growth in Asia-Pacific and its best-seller OMSN family in ETSI markets -- a next-generation SDH node concept it pioneered in 2000," said Stephane Penzo, Optical Networking analyst at RHK. "RHK's research and analysis indicate that the market for such multi-service aggregation devices will be the largest optical networking segment by 2004." RHK Inc. Alcatel SA