Lucent Seen Winning $1 Bln AT&T Order, Analyst Says
Murray Hill, New Jersey, 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.''
Lucent rose 3 1/2 to 102.
Last week, Michael Keith, president of AT&T business services, said Ericsson has been slow to deliver equipment in some markets, leading AT&T to use Lucent gear in several cities.
Bo Dimert, who heads Ericsson's North American operations, said his company has had trouble meeting AT&T's surge in demand, through it's working to solve the problem.
Ericsson rose 2 1/4 to 23 5/16, boosted by a patent settlement with rival Qualcomm Inc. Northern Telecom rose 1 11/16 to 62 3/16. AT&T rose 15/16 to 81 3/4.
16:33:56 03/25/1999
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