Alcatel-Lucent to boost Belgacom’s delivery of video, cloud and multimedia services thanks to the world’s most powerful Internet core router

Brussels – February 18, 2013 – Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) and Belgium’s leading service provider, Belgacom, today announced plans to expand its network infrastructure as it continues to address the exponential growth in bandwidth demand driven by demand from customers, businesses, data centers and content platforms.

Belgium is home to a large number of international organizations, including the European Commission. In deploying Alcatel-Lucent’s Extensible Routing System (XRS), Belgacom will be better able to handle the data demand created by such institutions as well as residential customers, making use of significantly more capacity to meet current and future bandwidth demands being driven by video, cloud-based applications and immersive multimedia delivered across an array of increasingly capable devices.

The XRS system also takes up less physical space and consumes dramatically less power than alternative routers, delivering cost and efficiency benefits to operators like Belgacom.

Core routers direct data traffic at the heart of the Internet network and determine the speed at which ‘packets’ of data are delivered. Alcatel-Lucent’s 7950 XRS router is the highest performing and most reliable core router available. It dramatically lowers operational complexity and deployment risks for service providers while providing an immediate boost to the IP core.

Key Facts

• The 7950 XRS family brings a huge boost in capacity, efficiency and flexibility to the heart of Internet Protocol (IP) networks. The routers provide five times the data throughput of existing alternatives while consuming only one-third the electricity.
• The XRS brings significant operational cost savings by reducing requirements for physical footprint and power per bit. Over a five-year horizon of network growth, Belgacom can save more than 50% of their space and power costs using the 7950 XRS.
• The 7950 XRS allows Belgacom to support the rapid adoption of ‘cloud’ applications, the explosion in video traffic and the widespread use of smartphones and tablets and prepares the core of their network for the next decade of growth.
• In 2004, Alcatel-Lucent reshaped the edge router market with the launch of its Service Router (SR). Today, it has a 25% market share, with more than 450 customers worldwide in IP routing.
• Telefonica recently announced that it will also deploy the XRS in Argentina and the Czech Republic.
• In November 2012, Alcatel-Lucent’s XRS was awarded the prize of  Best New Product (Telecom) byLight Reading. 

Quotes:

Johan Luystermans, Vice President Network Engineering & Operations, Belgacom said: “Thanks to the XRS, our customers will be able to watch more videos in more places, play more sophisticated video games, perform more transactions, share more data and overall do all the things they depend upon the Internet to do but now at greater speeds and with more reliability than was ever possible before.”

Luis Martinez Amago, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s EMEA region, said: “The XRS is a truly groundbreaking innovation, capable of reinventing the very heart of the Internet. It will benefit Belgacom significantly in both meeting the needs of home and institutional customers, and in lowering the operational cost of running an IP network, while at the same time reinforcing our long-term relationship and cooperation in bringing innovations to market that improve the experience of consumers.”

Additional information

• Product web site: http://bit.ly/12MByki
• Photos:  Alcatel-Lucent 7950 XRS family:http://bit.ly/Z3c4ib
• General ALU Flickr link:http://bit.ly/Z3cKEg
• Videos, slides and more from the Annual Tech Symposium: http://bit.ly/12qhhW7
• Blog: Alcatel-Lucent’s New Core Router: off to a big start http://bit.ly/Vnibkj

About Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU)

The long-trusted partner of service providers, enterprises and governments around the world, Alcatel-Lucent is a leading innovator in the field of networking and communications technology, products and services. The company is home to Bell Labs, one of the world’s foremost research centers, responsible for breakthroughs that have shaped the networking and communications industry.

Alcatel-Lucent innovations are regularly recognized by international institutions for their positive impact on society. In 2012 and for the second year running, Alcatel-Lucent was named one of the Thomson Reuters Top 100 Global Innovators, recognition for the company’s continued addition to its world-class patent portfolio, one of the largest in the telecom industry. Alcatel-Lucent has also been recognized for its sustainability performance.  In 2012 the company was ranked Technology Supersector Leader by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Through its innovations, Alcatel-Lucent is making communications more sustainable, more affordable and more accessible as we pursue our mission of Realizing the Potential of a Connected World.

With operations throughout the world, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with global reach. The Company achieved revenues of Euro 14.4 billion in 2012 and is incorporated in France and headquartered in Paris.

For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com, read the latest posts on the Alcatel-Lucent blog http://www.alcatel-lucent.com/blog and follow the Company on Twitter: http://twitter.com/Alcatel_Lucent.

Contact the Alcatel-Lucent Press Office: press@alcatel-lucent.com