Lucent to hive off its enterprise networking division

BANGALORE: The telecom company Lucent Technologies India Ltd., is planning to hive off its enterprise networking division which it had acquired as part of the Ascend Communications deal. The company plans to focus more on enterprise networking after this spin off, but this spin off is subject to its shareholders approval.

Lucent India also plans to continue investing in software for the global research and development (R&D) hub center in India, to exercise as a global software development center. "We plan to continue in investing in software for the R&D center, by making use of the development skills of software professionals in India," said Lucent Technologies India president and chief executive officer Vijay K. Gupta.

The company has signed technology sharing agreements with ITI for CDMA and GSM technologies. Lucent and ITI have also announced to build GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) network for Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) to provide mobile wireless service in Delhi and Mumbai. Meanwhile, Lucent also claims to reached a milestone of having installed one million switching lines worldwide.

Lucent Technologies got revenue of $38.303 billion in fiscal year 1999 which is about 20 per cent more than the previous year. "This company has about 153000 employees and will be breaking even in the next two to three years. In the last three to four years about $100 million has been invested totally in Lucent India," said Mr Gupta. He however, refused to disclose further strategies that the company has outlined for India.