ALMA Vision IP: Integrated Network and Service Management IP Carriers and Service Providers.

GENEVA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--October 12, 1999--

Alcatel at Telecom 99 - Hall 4, Stand n(degree) 210

Alcatel announces ALMA Vision IP, a management solution for IP centric networks and services, specifically addressing the needs of carriers and ISPs. Having the ability to operate, control and maintain IP networks and services is a crucial key for success in the fast changing world of telecom business. ALMA Vision IP is Alcatel's answer to help operators overcome this difficult challenge.

The efficient management of services is the key issue for today's operators, especially for IP based service providers. The consequence is that management systems have to shift from technology focused functions towards service and customer oriented features. For example, fault management can no longer be restricted to the centralisation and display of technical alarms but also has to determine the impact of technical faults on services and handle customer Service Level Agreements (SLA's) in alarm prioritisation and problem repair.

ALMA Vision IP addresses these changed needs of carriers and service providers, with functions such as:

o Intelligent Fault Management, to determine the impact of faults

on the services offered, to handle Service Level Agreements (SLA)

in alarm and problem management, and to perform correlation

between technical and customer information;

o Performance, Quality of Service (QoS) and SLA management,

including monitoring and reporting functions;

o Traffic engineering to manage bandwidth demand, control traffic

and optimise resources;

o Self-service telco, allowing the operator's customers to monitor

the services available on their Virtual Private Network.

ALMA Vision IP is scalable and modular. The capacity and functional scope of the solution can be tuned according to the network size and the exact needs and budget of the service provider. The deployed solution can then progressively be enhanced in pace with your business growth and network evolution.

The solution provides open APIs to plug in new functional modules, including third-party products, to integrate new types of equipment and to interface with external OSS applications present in the operator environment. For example ALMA Vision IP can be complemented with service provisioning products of the Alcatel portfolio to perform cross-domain service provisioning.

ALMA Vision IP clearly fits in the Alcatel's 2IP strategy and supports interfaces to Alcatel IP equipment. Moreover, it is a multi-vendor / multi-technology solution which allows for integrating non-Alcatel equipment and other telecom technology such as SDH or ADSL.

With its vast expertise and world wide resources Alcatel offers the entire range of skills needed to develop and implement ALMA Vision IP. With Alcatel's experience and know-how, IP Network Management becomes a reality.

About Alcatel

Alcatel builds next generation networks, delivering integrated end-to-end voice and data communications solutions to established and new carriers, as well as enterprises and consumers worldwide. With 120,000 employees and sales of EURO 21.3 billion ($25 billion), Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries.

For full Alcatel Geneva Telecom press list, consult: http://www.alcatel.com