BARCELONA -- Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) and NEC(TSE:6701) today announced the start of a broad collaboration to marketadvanced end-to-end communications solutions.

As an important first step in this collaboration,Alcatel-Lucent and NEC have decided to form a joint venture that will focuson the development of Long Term Evolution (LTE) wireless broadband accesssolutions. These solutions will support the network evolution of leadingcustomers around the world, such as NTT DoCoMo, who has already selected NECas a vendor for commercial service deployment of its Super 3G (LTE) project,and Verizon, with whom Alcatel-Lucent has already initiated a LTE trialprogram. Through this joint development effort, the two companies intend toaccelerate the availability of next-generation wireless solutions.

Leveraging the common LTE product strategy and platform of thejoint venture, Alcatel-Lucent and NEC will each manage delivery, projectexecution and dedicated support to their respective customers.

Under this joint venture, the two companies will pool theirexisting research & development resources and leverage market-provenexpertise in key technologies on which next-generation wireless access isbased, such as IP, multiple input/multiple output (MIMO) and orthogonalfrequency division multiple access (OFDMA). Through this joint developmenteffort, Alcatel-Lucent and NEC are affirming their R&D investmentcommitmentsand combining them to accelerate product innovation, differentiation andperformance. The goal of the two companies is to achieve faster commercialavailability of LTE solutions, serve an expanded, global customer base, andestablish a leading position in the early development phase of the LTEmarket. The two companies will make first commercial releases available in2009, and will leverage their field-proven wireless expertise to ensuresmooth integration of LTE technology with the existing W-CDMA/HSPA andCDMA/EV-DO networks of their respective customers.

"By leveraging complementary portfolios, robust research andinnovation capabilities, and strong market positions in Japan and around theglobe, the partnership is well positioned to hasten the evolution towardsthenext-generation of mobile services," said Philip Marshall, who heads uptechnology research at Yankee Group. "This is a smart pairing that will helpaccelerate the availability of LTE by capitalizing on early marketimplementations that we expect to occur in Japan and North America."

"This strategic collaboration with NEC is driven by scale,time-to-market, and product excellence objectives, and it will put us in astrong position to ride the next wave of transformation in the wirelessindustry," said Patricia Russo, CEO of Alcatel-Lucent. "By drawing upon ourcombined innovation capabilities, we will be able to effectively accompanyleading operators as they migrate their network to next-generation wirelessbroadband technology, hence sustaining the value of their networks well intothe future," she added.

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU)

NEC Corp. (Tokyo: 6701)