Completing its reorganization worldwide, Alcatel-Lucent shared not only its new vision and strategy but also its figures for 2008 during the press meeting organized on May 6 at Sofa Hotel. The meeting was also Mr. Ali Kancal’s first rendezvous with the press. Kancal has taken office in February as the chairman of Alcatel-Lucent Teletas. Beginning his presentation by evaluating 2008 financial year, Kancal mentioned Alcatel-Lucent Teletas’ local and global successes, explained the company’s goals for 2009, and summarized the new corporate strategy.

Alcatel-Lucent’s worldwide revenues for 2008 were Euro 17 billion, gross profit was Euro 5.8 billion and operating profit was Euro 466 million. The company became a market leader in broadband access, optics and CDMA, occupying the second place in IP/MPLS service routing, and the third place in GSM/GPRS/EDGE Radio Access Networks and W-CDMA. Total sales revenues in Alcatel-Lucent Turkey and Azerbaijan increased nearly 15 percent and reached TRY319 million. In this period, the operating profit was TRY13.1 million and the net profit after taxes was TRY6.6 million.

Kancal said that they had done the most important projects of the year 2008 for Turk Telekom, Turkcell, Avea and the customers in Azerbaijan. Among these projects, Turk Telekom’s Rural Transformation project occupied the first place. Other projects carried out for Turk Telekom included IP/MPLS, DSL, R/L infrastructure and NG SDH. In 2008, Alcatel-Lucent also finalized Turkcell TAN contract and the number portability projects for Avea and Turk Telekom. In Azerbaijan, significant contracts were signed with Delta Telecom and Bakcell for IP and mobile communication projects. 

In his presentation, Kancal also mentioned Alcatel-Lucent Teletas’ international support and R&D center. Comprising 379 experts, the center supports global projects in technologies such as IP, DSL, Optics, IPTV, NGN, IMS, Femto and 3G. These projects earned the company a revenue of Euro 22 million in 2008. The center included a Tiger team of 138 people, who took charge in 66 projects in 54 countries, and a technical support operation center of 136 people, who resolved 8,800 problems of 160 telecom operators through distant network access or onsite intervention. On the other hand, the R&D team of 105 people is developing new solutions in Femto Cell network control and management system, SurePay payment systems, DSL access, Smart Home Management and Network Analysis.

Kancal also summarized their expectations for 2009: “We expect that licenses for WiMAX, MVNO and local call services will be issued, and FTTx regulation will be completed. In 2009, with the activation of 3G networks, mobile broadband services for end users will become widespread. In fixed lines, the first access point will become closer to subscribers, and high-speed fixed broadband will prevail with technologies such as ADSL2+, VDSL, FTTx. Areas which cannot be reached by fixed lines with WiMAX applications will receive broadband services. Wi-Fi investments will pervade. End users will experience the convenience of receiving services seamlessly from the service provider to which they subscribe, regardless of the place. For new generation networks the infrastructure investments will increasingly continue.”

In the last part of his presentation, Kancal indicated the following regarding Alcatel-Lucent’s new strategy: “We want to improve the Web experience for end users, enterprises and service providers. With Bell Labs, we have a unique technology development capability. In more than 130 countries, we have trust-based and long-term relations with customers. We have considerable experience in fixed and mobile broadband, end-to-end IP networks and complex integration projects. Our goal is to leverage these advantages to provide added value to end users, service providers and content providers. To realize our targeted strategic transformation we will focus on three markets (service providers, enterprises and vertical markets) and four basic investment areas (IP, Optics, Mobile and Fixed Broadband and Applications).”

Source:C114