Alcatel Office

[Melanie Wendelberger]

In 2014, the Alcatel-Lucent group split into two: Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise, providing enterprise communication services, and Alcatel-Lucent, selling to communications operators. The enterprise business was sold to China Huaxin Post and Telecom Technologies in the same year,[2] and in 2016 Nokia acquired the remainder of Alcatel-Lucent.[3][4]

The company focused on fixed, mobile and converged networking hardware, IP technologies, software and services, with operations in more than 130 countries. In 2014, it had been named Industry Group Leader for Technology Hardware & Equipment sector in Dow Jones Sustainability Indices review,[5] and listed in the 2014 Thomson Reuters Top 100 Global Innovators for the 4th consecutive year.[6] Alcatel-Lucent also owned Bell Laboratories, one of the largest research and development facilities in the communications industry, whose employees have been awarded nine Nobel Prizes and which holds in excess of 29,000 patents.[7]

Alcatel-Lucent was formed when Alcatel (originally short for the Socit Alsacienne de Constructions Atomiques, de Tlcommunications et d'lectronique, a small company in Mulhouse absorbed by CGE in 1966) merged with Lucent Technologies on 1 December 2006. However, the predecessors of the company have been a part of telecommunications industry since the late 19th century. The company has roots in two early telecommunications companies: La Compagnie Gnrale d'lectricit (CGE) and the Western Electric Manufacturing Company.[11]

Western Electric began in 1869 when Elisha Gray and Enos N. Barton started a manufacturing firm based in Cleveland, Ohio, US. By 1880, the company had relocated to Chicago, Illinois, and become the largest electrical manufacturing company in the United States. In 1881, the American Bell Telephone Company, founded by Alexander Graham Bell and forerunner of American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T), purchased a controlling interest in Western Electric and made it the exclusive developer and manufacturer of equipment for the Bell telephone companies.[11]

CGE was formed in 1898 by French engineer Pierre Azaria in the Alsace region of what was then Germany and was a conglomerate involved in industries such as electricity, transportation, electronics and telecommunications. CGE would become a leader in digital communications and would also be known for building the TGV (train grande vitesse) high-speed trains in France.[11]

Bell Telephone Laboratories was created in 1925 from the consolidation of the R&D organizations of Western Electric and AT&T. Bell Labs would make significant scientific advances including: the transistor, the laser, the solar cell, the digital signal processor chip, the Unix operating system and the cellular concept of mobile telephone service. Bell Labs researchers have won 7 Nobel Prizes.[11]

AT&T re-entered the European telecommunications market in 1984 following the Bell System divestiture. Philips promoted the venture in part because its PRX public switching technology was ageing and it sought a partner to help fund the development costs of digital switching. The joint company used the existing manufacturing and development facilities in The Hague, Hilversum, Brussels and Malmesbury as well as its U.S. resources to adapt the 5ESS system to the European market. The joint venture company AT&T & Philips Telecommunications BV doubled annual turnover between 1984 and 1987, winning major switching and transmission contracts, mainly in the effectively captive Netherlands market. In 1987, AT&T increased its holding to 60% and in 1990 it purchased the remainder of the Philips' holding.

In 1998, Alcatel Alsthom shifted its focus to the telecommunications industry, spinning off its Alsthom activities and changing the company's name to Alcatel. AT&T spun off Lucent Technologies in April 1996 with an initial public offering (IPO).[11]

In April 2004, TCL Corporation and Alcatel announced the creation of a mobile phone manufacturing joint venture: Alcatel Mobile Phones. A year later Alcatel sold its share in the joint venture but licensed the Alcatel brand name to TCL, which continues to this day under Nokia.

Ben Verwaayen was appointed as chief executive officer in September 2008 after Alcatel-Lucent's first CEO, Patricia Russo, and first chairman, Serge Tchuruk, resigned.[14] In May 2009, Alcatel-Lucent's stake in Thales was acquired by Dassault Aviation.[15] Alcatel-Lucent announced the acquisition of OpenPlug on 1 September 2010.[16]

In 2011, Alcatel-Lucent moved the remaining workforce and equipment from Columbus, Ohio, 6200 East Broad Street, to Dublin, Ohio, 5475 Rings Road (near Mall at Tuttle Crossing.)[18] The former location was the Columbus Works manufacturing facility, which began in 1957 by Western Electric. During the early 2000s the location had reduced workforce and less manufacturing needs under Lucent Technologies. Upon the merger, Alcatel-Lucent in October 2007, decided to cease productions and release additional 230 positions from the location.[19] The decision for the move from Columbus to Dublin was from a large manufacturing facility with only 500 office employees at the office and 100 others working off-site, to a smaller 120,000 square foot two-tower building of office space for the workforce. Also, a $10 million tax incentive was provided from the State of Ohio, to assist in the relocation costs and keep the telecommunications workforce in the region. The work done at Dublin was in new-generation cell sites, 3G, 4G applications, and 4G LTE technologies.[18]

In 2014, a Bell Labs location was opened in Kfar Sava, a suburb of Tel Aviv, Israel. It was expected to research cloud services, complementing another Tel Aviv location set up by Alcatel in 1985 which was the global research center for the Cloudband product.[24]

Alcatel had a long history of domestic and global work in laying the infrastructure of undersea routes for telecommunications.[27] Purchases by Alcatel in the 1990s included the Enderby's Wharf site on the Thames in London, where cables were made from the 1850s;[28] and Les Cbles de Lyon at Calais, established in 1891.[29]

Starting in 2000, Alcatel Submarine Networks (ASN) and Louis Dreyfus Armatuers (LDA) had a partnership called ALDA Marine. This joint venture was to build, own and operate a fleet of cable ships to provide subsea telecommunication cable systems and marine operations in the global market. Alcatel would increase the undersea infrastructure as similar to other international companies, such as AT&T Corp. and SubCom had done decades ago for laying or maintaining cables. In 2003, Alcatel was part of the consortium to build the Sudan to South Africa undersea cable link called Eastern Africa Submarine System (EASSy).[30]

Since Alcatel was a manufacturer of telecommunication components for undersea cables, they also used company repeaters in their operations. Repeaters are used for amplification of the copper cable voice transmission over long distance undersea cables. The manufacturing location, operating since 1858, was in Greenwich, UK for the production of amplifiers, repeaters, and other submerged equipment.[32] The company also manufactured other equipment such as cables, that could be used for repair during response to outages, giving Alcatel an advantage in fast repair services and revenue growth.

During May 2008 to September 2010, Alcatel-Lucent completed 10,000 kilometers of two fiber pair cabling on the EASSy link. Alcatel-Lucent used DWDM technology that would transmit SDH frames over nine stations connecting South Africa to Sudan using this undersea fiber cabling type.[33]

Alcatel continued their global presence on the oceans, that in 2011, the Alcatel CS Ile de Sein assisted in recovering the Air France Flight 447 data recorder in the Atlantic. This proved the company had versatility of using the ship to recover an item from the seabed for telecommunications or emergency assistance. A ROV from Phoenix International Inc, also assisted the ship.[34] Additionally, Alcatel-Lucent purchased a cable ship named, CS Gulmar Badaro, in 2011 renaming it, CS Ile d'Aix for further expansion of operations. This vessel was built in 1992 and had fully cable repair and cable laying technologies.[35]

A technology need for undersea products was done by acquisition of a manufacturing location in Trondheim, Norway, that became part of Alcatel-Lucent as of November 2014. The Norway location manufactured analogue systems and seismic sensors.[32]

In March 2015, Alcatel-Lucent began control of their seven fleet ships from Louis Dreyfus Armateurs (LDA). Although, LDA would continue to manage and develop the fleet, it was Alcatel-Lucent looking for financial benefit from streamlining operations and having the ability to grow from the telecom market into gas and oil markets for their ships.[36]

In 2016, Bell Labs achieved a 6,600 kilometer single mode transoceanic fiber for Alcatel-Lucent Submarine Networks deployment after the Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent merger occurred. At this timeframe, already 580,000 kilometers of optical submarine cables/systems had been deployed globally by Alcatel-Lucent.[37]

The company's global headquarters (now a Nokia office) was in Boulogne-Billancourt, France.[46] It had previous head offices in the 7th arrondissement and 8th arrondissement of Paris, France.[47] Its previous head office, in the 8th arrondissement, was built between 1912 and 1929 and was renovated in 1998. During the renovation, the building was decorated with materials on the theme of the cosmos and time.[48]

There were regional groups for the Americas, Asia Pacific & China, and Europe, Middle East & Africa.[49] Middle East and Africa Headquarters were at Smart Village, Giza, Egypt.[50] Alcatel was present in Italy with various research centers: Vimercate (in Lombardy), Rieti, Battipaglia, Trieste, Genova, Bari, Naples, Rome and Sesto Fiorentino; by 2014, their presence was only in Vimercate, Trieste and Rome.[citation needed]

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