Will Alcatel-Lucent's recent acquisition of Nortel's UMTS radio access business (UTRAN) have an immediate bearing in India?
Analysts tracking the telecom industry opined that while India is gearing up to usher in the 3G technology mid 2007, service providers were waiting with bated breath for the government to announce a policy.
Sources pointed out that major telecom providers are consolidating their business. They however, cautioned people to devise a different strategy for India.
Alcatel- Lucent is at present, not willing to open the cards on its Indian strategy. The merger of Alcatel and Lucent brought each's high profile clients under one roof, and the UMTS acquisition is a step further in this consolidation process. It will fill-in the missing component to augment its position in the telecom space, say sources.
Ravi Sharma, president- South Asia, Alcatel-Lucent had earlier said that the alliance would utilize India to manufacture broadband and WiMAX equipment through technology transfer at its ITI plant in Uttar Pradesh.
"We are committed to substantial investments in the field of WiMAX in India - both for its development and for manufacturing," he said. This according to him was a significant part of Alcatel-Lucent's plans to ramp up India operations.
He added the partnership will be the most comprehensive network equipment provider in telecom, broadband, submarine cables, IPTV, manufacturing and also the research and development space in India.
The merger had a specific focus and plan. The entity to have a pan-India presence will provide GSM and CDMA capabilities to customers like MTNL, BSNL, Reliance Communications, etc.
A statement issued recently said that one in four UMTS operators - about 40 customers around the world - use Alcatel-Lucent's UMTS solutions.
Together with strengthened R&D and a broad products and solutions portfolio, Alcatel-Lucent is now uniquely positioned to lead the network technological evolutions from 3G to 4G - relying on its Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA), Software Defined Radio (SDR) and Multiple Input - Multiple Output (MIMO) expertise - to address the customers' needs of the present and future while realizing economies of scale.
"Our customers will clearly benefit from the high value this acquisition brings, and the pre-integration work has progressed very well. Our combined expertise and portfolios will enable us to deliver the most compelling UMTS offer for our customers, allowing them to provide their subscribers with innovative and high-speed 3G services. Our aim is to achieve the optimum combination of Alcatel-Lucent and Nortel's technologies, with minimum customer disruption. We are well positioned to capture the UMTS market growth opportunity," said Mary Chan, president- wireless activities, Alcatel-Lucent.
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