Newly installed Alcatel-Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen will unveil a plan to turn the company around, and wireless will be a part of that plan, the CEO said last week. Alcatel-Lucent, which has posted seven straight quarters of losses, has been pressured by investors to cut its wireless business loose. But Verwaayen said the vendor will keep its research and development and will be ready with LTE products.
And perhaps just in time to placate investors, Alcatel-Lucent announced a $230 million contract to upgrade China Telecom's CDMA network. Alcatel-Lucent said it is supplying base stations, which can be upgraded to 3G, to deploy the network across 56 cities in nine Chinese provinces by the end of the year.
Verwaayen will unveil the company's strategic plans for moving forward Friday.
For more:
- check out RCR News [1]
- read the WSJ [2] (sub. req.)
Related articles:
Alcatel-Lucent looks to reassure investors amid economic troubles [3]
Alca-Lu names Verwaayen CEO [4]
Links:
[1] http://www.rcrwireless.com/article/20081205/WIRELESS/812059989/1082/alcatel-lucent-ceo-we-will-remain-in-wireless-will-have-lte-products
[2] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122825075597773323.html
[3] http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/alcatel-lucent-looks-reassure-investors-amid-economic-troubles/2008-06-02
[4] http://www.fiercewireless.com/story/alca-lu-names-verwaayen-ceo/2008-09-02