Alcatel is Number one in Explosive Broadband Access Market for 1999, According to RHK.

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 17, 1999--

Alcatel's Litespan(R) New World Digital Loop Carrier(TM) NGDLC 

Aand ADSL DSLAMs top respective categories

Alcatel today announced it has further solidified its position as the leading provider of broadband access technologies and services needed to meet the skyrocketing demands for high-speed access to the Internet and data services in addition to basic telephony service, according to a new study by RHK (Ryan Hankin Kent).

The newly released figures from RHK, a leading telecommunications market research and consulting firm that tracks the broadband marketplace, indicated that Alcatel is the leader in supplying integrated DSL infrastructure. According to the RHK study, Alcatel's Litespan(R) New World Digital Loop Carrier(TM) holds a leadership 34 percent share in the $2.3 billion next-generation digital loop carrier (NGDLC) market, which is significantly ahead of its competitors. Alcatel's ADSL DSLAM (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer) also commands a 51 percent leadership share of the DSL market in North America, with no other vendor commanding more than 16 percent share.

Alcatel's dominance of the NGDLC market affirms the status of its flagship Litespan system as the broadband access platform of choice for leading local carriers, which are using Litespan as a cost-effective platform to drive fiber optics more deeply into their service areas and neighborhoods while simultaneously offering integrated ADSL capabilities. Litespan will be a key building block in SBC's recently announced $6.0 billion dollar initiative, Project Pronto. Litespan is now being deployed by every RBOC in the U.S.

"Our study shows that Alcatel is the number one player in the growing broadband access market," said Catherine Cook, Access Analyst for RHK. "2000 will be the year of mass deployment of DSL," according to Claude Romans, Director, Access Networks for RHK. "1999 has been the year of widespread infrastructure buildout, and we expect the buildout to continue in 2000. ADSL will be deployed from NGDLC platforms for the first time in 2000. Alcatel is positioned to deliver ADSL from both DSLAM and NGDLC platforms."

"The RHK numbers confirm what we are seeing in the marketplace -- that broadband access is where the action is," said Krish Prabhu, CEO of Alcatel USA and COO of Alcatel Telecom. "As DSL achieves critical mass, we are on pace to deploy more than 1.3 million lines of DSL by year end. With the unprecedented success of our ADSL DSLAMs and the rapidly growing footprint of Litespan, we are well positioned to provide our customers with a ubiquitous broadband access solution."

Alcatel's Litespan New World Digital Loop Carrier has become the multiservice access platform of choice for leading U.S. telecommunications carriers as they upgrade their extensive networks to support high-speed, always-on ADSL Internet access as well as other advanced digitally-delivered services such as voice over DSL, in addition to basic POTS service.

The Alcatel Litespan family of digital loop carriers is a high-capacity multiservice broadband platform that allows service providers to digitally provision voice, data, Internet and transport services incrementally as user demand grows. Litespan supports traditional narrowband telephony (traditional voice service), broadband services such as ADSL, as well as wide variety of network interfaces, including narrowband, wideband and broadband. As a next-generation digital loop carrier (NGDLC), Litespan can receive and aggregate large amounts of bandwidth outside the central office with basic copper distribution, multiple fiber-fed remote terminals, fiber-to-the-node, fiber-to-the-curb, and home or business.

Litespan's packet-based architecture supports ADSL service as the foundation for the all-digital loop. A Litespan node also acts as the aggregation point for multiple remote DLC terminals and DSLAMs (digital subscriber lines access multiplexers) while insuring the quality of service demands of DSL.

All voice and data services are managed by Alcatel's single access domain management platform, Access Management System (AMS). AMS manages both ADSL DSLAMs and Litespan network elements under a single umbrella. AMS is designed to maximize operational savings while accelerating the deployment of new service with flow-through service provisioning that manages all the new local packet services in addition to providing the interfaces to the legacy operation support systems.

Alcatel's ADSL Expertise

Alcatel's xDSL solutions are fully scalable and are available on a variety of service platforms, including line cards for the Alcatel Litespan New World Digital Loop Carrier; Alcatel 1000, a high-density central office Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer (DSLAM); and a compact, environmentally hardened mini-DSLAM packages used for low-density subscriber DLC situations. Alcatel's ADSL technology is also offered in an advanced range of Alcatel Speed Touch(TM) ADSL CPE modems. All Alcatel xDSL service platforms are fully NEBS (Level 3) compliant and integrate seamlessly into service provider networks. The ADSL DSLAM's recently introduced multi-mode hardware protects the service provider's investment in DSL infrastructure by supporting both G.lite and full-rate splitterless ADSL on the same line card.

Alcatel ADSL equipment is being actively deployed by Bell Atlantic, SBC (Southwestern Bell, Pacific Bell, and Ameritech), and BellSouth. Outside the United States, Alcatel has delivered ADSL equipment to Telekom Austria, Telia in Sweden, BT in the UK, Belgacom in Belgium, Telefonica in Spain, France Telecom, Telecom Italia, Singapore Telecom, and PT Telecom of Indonesia. ADSL networks have also been implemented in Canada, China, Korea, and Thailand.

Alcatel builds next generation networks, delivering integrated end-to-end voice and data solutions to established and new carriers, as well as enterprises and consumers worldwide. With 120,000 employees and sales of EURO 21.3 billion ($25.0 billion), Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on Internet: http:/www.alcatel.com