Alcatel Lucent has received positive response worldwide

When Lucent merged with Alcatel, experts believed that in India Alcatel would have to carry the burden of Lucent for a long time8212;Lucent was not doing well and was considered to be an unreliable vendor. What is the status now? Has the merger affected your business?

The statement about Lucent being 8220;unreliable vendor8221; is not correct. Lucent had supplied and serviced one of the most reliable CDMA networks of Reliance. It is one of the most efficient CDMA networks in the world. However, some difficulty might have been faced by Lucent8217;s GSM customers in India as it had decided not to continue with GSM technology development and supply. This decision was not India specific, but was a global decision.

In the new scenario , customers all over the world have shown very positive response towards the merged company Alcatel Lucent for its size, wide spectrum of product range and strengths of customer support. Our customers in India have also been very positive to this change and have shown confidence by awarding new contracts. Recently, we bagged orders valued at more than 400 million from Reliance Infocomm for expansion of its CDMA and GSM networks. Alcatel Lucent would be supplying the majority of their network covering 20,000 towns and 600,000 villages. There cannot be a better example of customer8217;s confidence. We are overwhelmed by the support of our customers.

Organisationally, what changes has the merger brought about?

In terms of organisations, former Alcatel as well as former Lucent had strong presence in the country and the merger has strengthened our unified presence. As Alcatel Lucent, we have already invested more than 1 billion in India, thus making us one of the major foreign investors in country. The merger has been very positive in bringing best of both companies and the customers have welcomed Alcatel Lucent.

The general impression is that Alcatel hasn8217;t done much in private sector.

I would like you to appreciate the background for this impression. Alcatel has been present in India since the beginning of opening of telecom sector. In fact, on July 24, we completed 25 years of our partnership with ITI. Former Alcatel8217;s impression of being less present in private operators is generated from two factors. First, due to Alcatel8217;s overwhelming presence in Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd BSNL and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd MTNL. And second, for having missed the GSM bus during the initial phase.

How did you not get on the GSM bus earlier?

In fact, to put it in right perspective, we were present in GSM segment too with Koshika but unfortunately this company could not cope with the initial difficult years of operation and thus we lost our presence.

Was it easy to get back to GSM?

Yes, it was very challenging to come back in GSM market in India after having missed it once. This became more difficult because by the end of first phase, most operators were tied up with different manufacturers and growth was not much. In such a scenario, operators were only looking for incremental capacity increase and hence were not keen on new suppliers.

However, in 2003, we decided to be first to bring GSM manufacturing to India through transfer of technology to ITI. Today ITI, through its factories in Rae Bareli and Mankapur, is a major supplier to BSNL and MTNL for GSM network based on technology of Alcatel Lucent.