In case you missed the recent news from Alcatel-Lucent, the telecommunications equipment maker is the latest to throw its hat in the applications ring. GigaOm offers a good overview of both the future potential and current shortcomings of this new offering.

From a high-level, the primary benefit is tied to the open APIs that will allow developers to tap the assets within service-provider networks. If all goes according to plan – the groups will then be able to work together to differentiate their applications and build new revenue streams. However at the moment, the options are limited and only mobile location applications are supported.

BroadSoft is quite a few steps ahead in the application marketplace arena. While we both use a RESTful API architecture, that is where the similarities end. With a full 18 months under our belts, the BroadSoft Xtended program has attracted more than 2,000 developers. Plus our platform enables applications that integrate with business-process software, mobile clients, desk phones and other devices to offer a much broader range of applications.

Alcatel’s marketplace-deployment model is also quite different than ours —they give service providers a gallery of applications and then point you to the developer. And as we announced just this past quarter at our annual users conference, we now have complete ecommerce enablement of our marketplace. Consumers can now download apps directly and start using them. Here are a few very cool examples of apps that can be found on the BroadSoft Marketplace, which were unveiled at our annual users’ conference in our always popular “Show Me the Apps” session:

• Microsoft CRM intergration – this full-service CRM app, delivers streamlined communications options for users that enable them to quickly find and communicate with the right person, improving work flow and, more importantly, customer satisfaction.

• Our app that integrates with Mobile Max extends real-time communications to the mobile device with one number, one device, and one address book.

• JoeDevloper’s app transcribes voice messages to text and email,and enables users to search messages by keyword in their inboxes.

In short, our business model is creating integrated, real-time communication options that you can quickly take to market, delivering a superior communication experience to consumers. That’s where apps are more than just the next big thing – they are a real game changer.

At times it seems there’s a piece of the smart grid pie for just about everyone, from meter makers to software developers to utilities and energy storage firms. But companies building communications technology could eventually be among the biggest winners in the smart grid buildout, which is why two of Europe’s biggest players in this space, France’s Alcatel-Lucent (s ALU) and the UK’s Vodafone (s VOD), announced yesterday a “smart metering” partnership through their subsidiaries in Germany. The companies will work together to develop an “extensive offer” for the German market meant to provide consumers with real-time information about their energy and water use. Both subsidiaries will market the offering as a managed service through their respective sales organizations.

The companies said the deal matches each firm’s core competencies. Alcatel-Lucent will provide its Smart Metering Management System, an IP-based software platform for real-time monitoring of utility meters, as well as services to help integrate the new smart meter services with an energy provider’s existing back-end systems, such as those for resource planning and data management. Vodafone will provide the communications connection between the smart meters installed at homes and Alcatel-Lucent’s metering management system. That connection will be provided over Vodafone’s network using either a fixed-line DSL or wireless GPRS connection, according to the release.

The companies said their partnership will enable German utilities to meet EU rules related to the smart grid, including the requirement to bill customers based on their actual energy usage (as opposed to flat rates) and the call for adoption of technologies to provide the “same open-access principles” that apply to the Internet today. The partnership has already inked at least one German deal, with municipal utility Stadwerke Pasewalk, to monitor and control its smart meters and integrate related systems. As part of the deal, Alcatel-Lucent will give the utility’s customers devices to monitor their energy use in real time.

This partnership announcement comes as communication technology heavyweights have been ramping up efforts in the smart grid industry. Telcos, which have invested heavily in building ubiquitous wireless networks, are widely seen to be in a position to ink lucrative deals with utilities (See our Long View article on this topic at GigaOM Pro, subscription only). Phone Companies have been looking into creative ways to use their 3G networks for “machine-to-machine” services like the smart grid as a way to diversify their customer base.

In the U.S., AT&T so far has been the most aggressive among telcos in the smart grid space. Earlier this week, the telco announced a deal with Silver Spring Networks, which builds smart grid networking gear, in which Silver Spring can use AT&T’s network to communicate with a utility’s back office. Meanwhile, Verizon is working with meter maker Itron and smart-grid firm Ambient to use its wireless network for sending meter data to utilities.

Alcatel-Lucent (s alu) today is launching a group of products and services aimed at bolstering the service side of its business as well as helping its carrier customers feel better about their prospects in an increasingly open world. The telecommunications equipment maker is introducing its Application Exposure Suite, an Open API Service and consulting services that it envisions becoming the bridge between apps developers and the carrier networks.

However, to make that bridge a viable market opportunity, it has to convince app makers that carriers have something to offer them, as well as overcome years of proprietary behavior and code that has dominated the telecommunications industry. Johnson Agogbua, VP of global application enablement solutions, says 73 percent of carriers are willing to allow access to their network for API calls, so he believes carriers are ready to open up their networks selectively behind the Application Exposure Suite. He added that the Open API service will allow developers to build and test their apps so the code will work with the information from the wide variety of different operators which may be using non-Alcatel-Lucent gear in their networks.

To handle the fact that not all operators use Alcatel-Lucent’s equipment, the company is trying to sign partnerships with other equipment vendors as well as service providers to ensure an app works across the whole telecommunications infrastructure, from wired to wireless. However, it’s not clear how far along Alcatel-Lucent is when it comes to those partnerships.

Even as Agogbua assured me that carriers are willing to open up their networks to API calls, and have great information to share, I’m not convinced that carriers are ready or able to become like the big web firms such as Twitter or even Salesforce.com and provide access to their data. Also, that data won’t be free. Carriers will expect to be paid for their intelligent pipes. Location data is the only thing carriers are offering at the moment. Agogbua says in the future they will make billing information, content delivery across multiple devices, voice mail info and intelligent presence available to application developers. If they do it soon and well, it could be compelling enough for big apps developers to use, but a lot has to go right before we reach that point.

SFR ‘Home 3G’ goes live (website ¦ user guide)

SFR launched its Home 3G femtocell this week.  Like the Vodafone Access Gateway, it’s a standalone femtocell offering improved 3G coverage (but, at least initially, no homezone tariffs or femto services).

Some operators have been reluctant to promote an ‘improved coverage’ proposition (which could be interpreted as an admission of problems with the network).  However, it’s good to see that SFR is making an effort to attract customers for Home 3G; there’s an entertaining video showing how poor 3G coverage can lose a chap his girlfriend (at least if she’s daft enough to stand in the rain sending texts instead of ringing the doorbell).

Current Analysis’ Peter Jarich calls Home 3G “a wonderfully simple proposition”.  He also points out that SFR is marketing the femtocell as much for data as for voice, aiming to “reinforce SFR’s reputation for superior mobile broadband network coverage, both in the wide-area and indoors.”  Jarich believes that indoor service quality may become a key differentiator as network sharing removes differences in outdoor HSPA coverage, and speculates that Orange France may be forced to rethink its preference for UMA over femtocells for the consumer market (see also rumours here).

Consumer reaction has been limited so far, but according to one comment the €199 price may be considered a bit steep: “La technologie est intéressante mais le prix l’est moins” (The technology is interesting, but the price is less so).

In what Rethink Wireless calls a “reversal of national loyalties”, SFR’s femtocell is based on British femto technology from Ubiquisys, supplied by NEC, whereas the Vodafone UK solution hails from partly French owned Alcatel-Lucent.  In an interview with Mobile Europe, Ubiquisys CTO Will Franks claims an advantage over the Alcatel Lucent system: “The radio technology has to be very good…Operators such as Vodafone UK which had a free carrier can use something less sophisticated, but operators on shared carriers…need something that will not give them interference in the macro network.”

My French is a bit rusty, but I found are a few interesting snippets on the SFR website FAQ:

• The service works with any Internet connection, and doesn’t require SFR’s NeufBox residential gateway.
• The signal range is advertised as 15m (providing a coverage area of over 7,500 sq ft).
• When in femtocell coverage, SFR phones display “SFR Home 3G” (or on some phones “20811″ or “F11″).
• The access control list can hold up to four numbers in addition to the subscriber’s own.  (SFR charges subscribers between €2 and €4 for changing numbers on the access control list after the first month!  Changes take 48 hours to come into effect, which implies that the system is not yet automated.)
• Home 3G is not compatible with fibre-optic broadband Internet services.
• The installation video indicates that the femtocell should be placed at least 1.5 metres from the NeufBox.  (Vodafone UK recommends a 6 ft separation between its femtocell and a WiFi router, as a precaution against poor frequency filters in the WiFi unit.)
• Strangely, the SFR website lists seven 3G handsets that are incompatible with the Home 3G femtocell.  (Fortunately the flagship iPhone 3GS is not one of these.)

The Taiwanese are coming

According to DIGITIMES, “nearly all major Taiwan-based network equipment makers have ventured into the production of indoor-use femtocells”.  The publication suggests that this could result in femtocell price reductions to the magic figure of $100 per unit in the second half of 2010.  Gemtek chairman Howard Chen says he expects femtocells to be one of the “major items” his company ships to carriers in 2010.

Femtocells “not dead yet”

Despite having “pretty much decided that the femto market is dead”, GigaOM acknowledges that other analysts disagree.  Stacey Higginbotham cites a Deutsche Bank report concluding that all carriers will have to use femtocells in order to keep up with the demand for mobile broadband.  But Stacey believes carriers are “going to have to improve their networks in a way that doesn’t pass on the femtocell cost to consumers”.

Engadget asks “How Would You Change AT&T’s 3G MicroCell?”

The most popular answers are (1) roll it out nationwide, and (2) make it free (or less than about $50, anyway).

More from SpiderCloud

Despite insisting that its E-RAN is not a femtocell, SpiderCloud says it can connect to the operator’s standard 3G core network using the Iuh standard.  But some aspects of the system do sound very different from the femtocell approach; for example, in an interview with ThinkFemtocell, SpiderCloud’s VP Marketing Ronny Haraldsvik explains that the E-RAN requires “considerable co-ordination and configuration of the macrocell network” (for example to achieve hand-in).

ABI redresses the balance

ABI Research has hit back at the sensationalist reporting of its recently revised femtocell forecasts, saying that its predictions were “taken out of context, conveniently leaving out the part where we said we still believe in this market”.  Aditya Kaul’s blog posting discusses a number of recent positive femtocell announcements, and concludes that the femto market is “just beginning to take shape”.

In other news…

• NSN and China Mobile show TD-LTE femto demo.
• Too much femto jargon?  Yes!
• Video of Percello / Node H demo of 16 simultaneous calls on PRC 6500 chip.
• Pete Claydon to leave picoChip.
• Here’s a happy VAG user.
• NICTA and Rohde & Schwarz Demonstrate Interference-cancellation.
• Revenues from in-flight WiFi slow to take off.
• Survey: would you pay for better cell voice/data coverage at home?
• STM announces SuperPico (looks more like a small macro) for small GSM operators

Tellumat Telecoms, the converged communications specialist in the Tellumat Group and distributor of ShoreTel’s IP range, says the US vendor’s recent exploits corroborate the benefits that ShoreTel customers report in their own businesses.

In just one week leading into November, ShoreTel won the prestigious Nemertes Best IP Telephony (IPT) Provider award for the sixth time, and joined the select Deloittes Technology Fast 500 club.

Top IPT provider – value and technology stand out

Since Nemertes (www.nemertes.com) launched its independent survey of IPT providers in 2003, ShoreTel (founded 1998) has top-scored in every ratings category. This year it beat a field of 39 in the areas of Value; Customer Service; Technology; Management Tools; as well as Installation and Trouble-Shooting.

“ShoreTel’s key driver continues to be its value with a 4.31 rating out of 5,” the citation reads. “Low prices, a broad set of features, scalability, strong customer service and relatively uncomplicated deployment and troubleshooting all contributed to its win.”

The end-user-only research sample collectively praised ShoreTel’s “exceptional features”, its “highly resilient architecture” and its low upfront and ongoing costs. They add that the vendor’s distributed architecture offers redundancy at an affordable price and is easy to expand.

The interesting aspect of ShoreTel’s achievements is that it is one of a number of IP market ‘challengers’ in the survey, the award citation discloses. And yet, it has outdone all competitors, including the market leaders.

Challengers besides ShoreTel include Microsoft, Alcatel-Lucent, 3Com and Mitel. The ‘market leader’ group is brought up by Cisco, Avaya and Nortel.

For the full report, visit here.

Technology Fast 500

ShoreTel has further been ranked 228^th in Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500 survey, having grown its revenue by 584% in the five years under consideration (2004 – 2008).

The award category rates the fastest-growing US companies in the IT, telecoms, life sciences and clean technology industries – a voluminous category with stellar performers.

ShoreTel’s CEO, John Combs, credits ShoreTel’s engineering ingenuity and customer satisfaction. “Our focus is on providing easy-to-manage, simple-to-use solutions, an architecture that is built for reliability and growth, and on earning customer satisfaction.”

Everyone will benefit

“Accolades don’t come much bigger and better than this,” says Bennie Langenhoven, managing executive of Tellumat Telecoms, which launched the ShoreTel range in South Africa in April 2009.

At the time, Langenhoven based his choice on the redundant distributed architecture of the ShoreTel platform, its simple business integration, scalability, manageability, high customer satisfaction index, low cost of ownership and ease of deployment and use.

“Nothing has changed since then,” he says. “What we liked then continues to rake in the accolades. Our customers, channel partners and everyone else involved in ShoreTel can only benefit from an ongoing association.”

Langenhoven notes that ShoreTel has been an excellent partner and is a very good fit with Tellumat Telecoms’ own strategy, bolstering our ability to provide support to our local partners and re-sellers.

View the full 2009 Technology Fast 500™ ranking at http://www.deloitte.com/us/2009Fast500winners.

Gefunden bei heise.de:

10.11.2009 18:36

heise online

Alcatel-Lucent streicht weitere Jobs

Der angeschlagene Netzwerkausrüster Alcatel-Lucent streicht in Deutschland jede zehnte Stelle. Bis Ende 2010 sollen 450 der 4500 Jobs wegfallen, sagte eine Unternehmenssprecherin am Dienstag in Stuttgart. Zunächst hatte der französisch-amerikanische Netzwerkausrüster angekündigt, im Zuge des weltweiten Konzernumbaus in Deutschland 358 Arbeitsplätze zu streichen.

Vor dem Werk im Stuttgarter Stadtteil Zuffenhausen demonstrierten Angaben der Gewerkschaft IG Metall zufolge 400 Beschäftigte gegen die Pläne. Neben der Deutschlandzentrale in Stuttgart hat Alcatel-Lucent auch einen großen Standort in Nürnberg. Wo wie viele Arbeitsplätze wegfallen, wollte die Unternehmenssprecherin nicht sagen. Noch zu Jahresbeginn hatte das Unterehmen einen “Stellenabbau größeren Ausmaßes” ausgeschlossen.

Alcatel-Lucent war zuletzt immer tiefer in die roten Zahlen gerutscht. Wie seine Wettbewerber leidet das Unternehmen unter der Zurückhaltung der Telekomunternehmen, die in diesem Jahr weniger in ihre Netze investieren. Unterm Strich stand für das dritte Quartal ein Verlust von 182 Millionen Euro nach minus 40 Millionen Euro im Jahr zuvor. Die Umsätze gingen um rund neun Prozent auf 3,7 Milliarden Euro zurück. In diesem Jahr sollen 750 Millionen Euro eingespart werden.

(dpa) / (vbr/c’t)

(source : L’Usine Nouvelle 10/11/09)

Une centaine de salariés d’Alcatel-Lucent ont manifesté mardi à la mi-journée devant le Parlement européen de Strasbourg, où une délégation a été reçue. A l’appel de leur intersyndicale, ces salariés du site d’Illkirch-Graffenstaden, au sud de Strasbourg, ont protesté contre les suppressions d’emplois en Europe et réclamé une stratégie industrielle de défense du secteur des télécoms. D’autres rassemblements étaient prévus aujourd’hui à Paris et à Rennes, ainsi qu’en Allemagne, en Italie et en Roumanie.

Selon Denis Vaudrey, secrétaire CFDT du comité central d’entreprise d’Alcatel-Lucent, le spécialiste des télécoms emploie 26.000 salariés en Europe aujourd’hui, contre 30.000 en 2006. « Il y a encore 4.000 suppressions d’emplois prévues, soit par licenciements, soit par externalisations », regrette-t-il. « Les champions européens des télécoms sont confrontés à une concurrence non européenne de plus en plus menaçante car inéquitable », dénonce l’intersyndicale : « Les Etats-Unis et la Chine protègent les secteurs stratégiques pour la sécurité de leurs territoires ». Mais « l’Europe est une vraie passoire », affirme Denis Vaudrey : « Si ça continue comme ça, dans dix ans il n’y aura plus d’opérateur européen des télécoms, ce qui va poser des questions de sécurité nationale ». Les salariés d’Alcatel-Lucent invitent donc la Commission européenne à agir pour « éviter un risque réel de perte d’indépendance ».

A Illkirch-Graffenstaden, Alactel-Lucent emploie 630 salariés. Ingénieurs pour la plupart, ils conçoivent des produits de téléphonie d’entreprise. Toute production a cessé sur le site, qui comptait 1.500 personnes en 2002. Alcanet, filiale informatique d’Alcatel-Lucent, emploie par ailleurs une petite cinquantaine de salariés, qui doivent être transférés à Hewlett-Packard. Mi-octobre, environ un tiers des effectifs totaux avait débrayé pour exprimer sa crainte sur la pérennité du site et sa solidarité avec les grévistes d’Alcanet, qui protestaient contre les conditions de leur transfert.

De notre correspondant en Alsace, Thomas Calinon

[qi:083] A large group of carriers and equipment makers yesterday came out in support of a standard called One Voice to provide voice over the next-generation Long Term Evolution mobile networks. For those adopting the standard, LTE mobile calls would become VoIP calls. The standard is necessary to ensure you can call people on 3G networks from a 4G network and across different providers, and reduces the complexity of making that happen. 4G networks are all IP-based, while voice calls are still routed over circuit-switched networks, which could cause communication problems. Figuring out how to deliver circuit-switched calls on a packet network was going to result in compromises and costs I detailed back in April.

So enter AT&T, Orange, Telefonica, TeliaSonera, Verizon, Vodafone, Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks, Nokia, Samsung Electronics, and Sony Ericsson, which are all stepping behind the One Voice effort that will use a standard version of the IMS framework to route voice calls between the IP and circuit-switched networks. It’s easy to understand why the equipment makers are behind this — they’ve been trying to sell IMS gear for years, and because most of the carriers involved have their own IP-based wireless network they’ve already got their own IMS equipment.

However, a few notable players are missing from the One Voice effort, such as T-Mobile and some of the Chinese carriers. There is also still the question of when these standards will actually be implemented and, thus, able to be deployed in the network. Verizon plans to have its LTE network covering 100 million people by the end of next year, and AT&T will start trials at that time as well. Given that yesterday’s announcement was the beginning of a process that could take a year or longer to cement, we’re still going to need an interim solution if carriers want to provide voice on LTE networks.

This standard shows that voice over LTE is finally a big issue for carriers, said Steven Shaw, VP of marketing for Kineto, which is part of a competing LTE voice effort called VoLGA. He denied that One Voice obviates the need for VoLGA given how long it will take for a standard to be ratified and implemented. Carriers can use VoLGA in the meantime, he notes, which would generate revenue for Kineto. Regardless, getting big industry players to get a standards effort rolling is a key step for those who want 4G handsets — even if they won’t be out in 2011.

Nokia Siemens, a telecommunications equipment joint venture, plans to lay off up to 5,700 employees, or 7-9 percent of its work force, in order to cut about $740 million in costs. The company, which is a joint venture between Siemens (s si) and cell phone maker Nokia (s nok), will also whittle down to three business units from five. But you wouldn’t really get it after reading the headline on its press release which states, “Nokia Siemens Networks Targets Improved Financial Performance, Return to Growth.”

Look, I get that you probably don’t want to title your press release, “We’re Laying off 5,700 Workers,” but the headline chosen is too divorced from reality for my tastes. Emphasize the positive by all means, but the title amounts to wishful thinking, especially given the incredible difficulties the entire telecommunication equipment market faces. Remember Nortel (s nt)? Like that “Little Engine that Could,” Nokia Siemens may think it can, but this isn’t a children’s story, and it might not have a happy ending.

With intense competition coming from European competitors Alcatel-Lucent (s alu) and Ericsson (s eric) and even more fierce rivalry from the upstart Asian vendors, Huawei, and ZTE, selling telecom equipment is getting more cutthroat. The company is dragging down its backers, with Nokia marking down $1.4 billion of its investment in the joint venture during the most recent quarter, despite efforts a year ago to cut costs. Cutting costs is only going to take Nokia Siemens so far, and it’s not likely to get it over the hill into profitability and growth.

Ben Verwaayen’s (CEO of Alcatel-Lucent) take on diversity – Umesh Ramakrishnan.

I spent last week in Europe meeting various CEOs on the continent. As always, I found the conversations to be stimulating and thought provoking. One particular meeting sticks out in my mind. I met with Ben in his office in Paris. He was talking about the various ways he was meeting the many challenges of leading a global behemoth like Alcatel-Lucent. One particular topic was diversity. He felt that enough lip service had been paid to this issue. He wanted to have an impact on the leadership of his company. So, he assembled eighteen of his top leaders in a conference room and told them that there were to be no questions or comments in the meeting. He then proceeded to show them eighteen slides. Each slide had a picture of an attendee of this meeting and the number of years they had worked for Alcatel-Lucent. Click, click, click. He went through all eighteen slides and thanked them for attending. Nothing else was said. Later he sent them all a message saying he’d like to meet with each one of them in a couple of months and go through a similar presentation about each one of their direct reports. Just a photograph, name and number of years with the company. Ben believes that he left a lasting impression on his leadership team. He believes that they will take swift action to improve the diversity of their teams. The idea is not just to inject people of different backgrounds into the company but to ensure that they were drawing from the largest pool of available resources world-wide. He said, “Talent has no passport, color or background.” Powerful stuff. Sure left an impact on me. I’d bet it will leave one on the organization too.