It looks as if Christmas is shaping up to be a happier occasion at Alcatel-Lucent than its rival Ericsson.

Franco-American Alcatel-Lucent says it's been selected to build the backhaul component of Telecom's new 3G WCDMA/HSPA mobile network, due to go live in June next year (and already available to international visitors, on a limited basis). "Backhaul" is the link in a cellular network that connects cell towers to a telephone company's main network. Telecom chief technical officer Stuart Sutton says his company chose Alcatel-Lucent's IP/MPLS solution because it would help Telecom "rapidly roll out exciting new mobile broadband services."

NBR understands Ericsson had pitched hard for the Telecom 3G contract, and thought it had the running with a bid centred around an ambitious eight-month time-frame.

Ericsson is now shut out of the two major 3G network builds taking place here. Nokia-Siemens won the contract to build Vodafone NZ's 3G network.

Compounding its holiday season blues, Ericsson has announced it's laying off 300 staff across its Australia and New Zealand operation – 100 permanent staff and 200 contractors. The company employs around 1600 staff over the two countries.

Ericsson spokesman Tom Clancy says about 10 New Zealand staff will be affected by the "streamlining". Mr Clancy said  Ericsson had "a good spread of business" in New Zealand with clients including the three main telcos, Vector and the NZ Police.

In Australia, Swedish-based Ericsson has had a big run of wins, including contracts to build Telstra's recently completed "Next G" network, and Vodafone's new 3G network. But big delays completing Vodafone's new 3G network have led to a public falling out between the two companies, and speculation that the telco will hit Ericsson with a big compensation claim.

Source:nbr