Lucent Seen Winning $1 Bln AT&T Order, Merrill's Analyst Says:
March 25 (Bloomberg) -- Lucent Technologies Inc., the world's largest maker of phone-equipment, is likely to win a contract from AT&T Corp. to supply about $1 billion of cellular network equipment, an analyst said.
Lucent, AT&T's former equipment arm, is seen beating out rivals Northern Telecom Ltd. and Ericsson AB for the order, Merrill Lynch & Co. Analyst Joseph Bellace said in a report. Lucent officials declined to comment, and AT&T was unavailable.
AT&T, the No. 1 U.S. long-distance company, is pushing to expand its
network to meet demand for its popular Digital One Rate calling plan,
which charges a single rate for calls anywhere in the U.S. The company
has said it plans to spend about $2 billion this year to beef up its
wireless business. ''There is an opportunity for a major contract award to address this problem,'' analyst Bellace wrote. Lucent ''is being viewed very favorably by AT&T Wireless for this contract.'' |
