Lucent set up a new office.................
exchange2000.com
Lucent said it had agreed to acquire the LMDS wireless business of Hewlett-Packard Co., and that it would launch a new wireless-broadband-networks division in Milpitas, Calif.
Lucent bought HP's LMDS division........................
cableworld.com
Lucent To Buy H-P's LMDS Business Division
By Jim Barthold
In a deal that'll transform it into a key player in the emerging local multipoint distribution service market, Lucent Technologies said last week that it's planning to buy Hewlett-Packard Co.'s LMDS Wireless Business and launch a Wireless Broadband Networks (WBN) division based in Silicon Valley.
The sale, whose financial terms weren't disclosed, indicates H-P's efforts to distance itself from broadband telecommunications and instead focus on its core computer-based technologies.
Lucent primarily will develop products to serve small to medium-sized businesses with data delivery up to 45 mbps, according to Larry Schwerin, GM of the WBN division.
"The original context of LMDS was really more like wireless cable, and in that context, it was driven more by residential services," he said. "The market has dramatically shifted into more of a need for business access for high-speed data, voice and maybe video applications."
Schwerin added that Lucent isn't abandoning its LMDS technology for video delivery: "I would suspect that the video angle on this will, in fact, come into its own, but probably as a second generation to the business application."
Breaking out the LMDS business unit from its Video Communications Division is part of H-P's plan to move away from traditional broadband telecommunications, according to Debra Dunn, the company's divisional VP-GM.
"We've chosen not to invest heavily in building out broadband infrastructure," she said. "Our focus in the cable arena, with cable modems, was on getting that big pipe to the home. Similarly, our VOD focus earlier on and this LMDS initiative were all about getting the big pipe to the home.
"That is not going to be a priority for H-P going forward. We continue to offer a lot of cable test products, so we want to help enable that technology. We have lots of computing products that will take advantage of the bandwidth delivered by that technology, but we have decided not to focus on building out the infrastructure."
Dunn noted that the industry's original LMDS focus has moved from competing with cable in residential video delivery to feeding data to businesses, where it'll take advantage of the technology's wireless delivery to make quick strikes before cable operators build wireline networks.
"In the U.S., most of the service providers that are looking at using this technology view residential video applications as icing on the cake a few years down the road -- not the primary focus that is justifying their investment," she said.
She also pointed out that there's a different focus overseas, particularly in Asia, where customers "continue to be very focused on the video side."
Through its WBN division, Lucent wants to capture a market that some analysts say is worth billions of dollars.
"This unit is part of the overall wireless networks group, and this whole area of broadband wireless is really tied to the new market opportunity that's appearing here in the U.S. and globally," Schwerin said. "It's really tied to the whole telecom reform and privatization directions that are happening globally."
(February 23, 1998)
Lucent and Philips............................
cableworld.com
Lucent, Philips Map Merger
Lucent Technologies and Philips Electronics N.V. have agreed to merge their consumer electronics divisions into a new company called Philips Consumer Communications. The new company will be 60%-controlled by Philips and based in Parsippany, N.J.
HP relies on Divicom for digital video...................
tmo.hp.com
There could be a connection.
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