Lucent sees more healthy Mexico growth
By Fiona Ortiz
MEXICO CITY, June 3 (Reuters) - The Mexican arm of U.S.
telecommunications equipment firm Lucent Technologies , sees its
1999 sales
growing more than 30 percent as the company rides the country's
telecommunications boom.
Lucent's marketing director for Mexico, Guadalupe Perez, said in an
interview
with Reuters on Thursday that the company expected to outpace the
25
percent rate of growth in investment in telecommunications
infrastructure here.
"Our growth is going to be larger than the market's. In Latin America
we have
had 30 percent yearly growth consistently in recent years and (in
Mexico) we
are going to continue that growth, actually more," she said.
Lucent, the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker,
employs
3,900 people in Mexico and provides a wide range of services,
including
designing and building wireless networks for operators, designing and
installing
telephone networks for large businesses and developing data
networking
systems.
Perez said that Mexico's rapid deregulation process and huge growth
in the
number of new telephone system operators was fueling growth for
Lucent.
"Mexico is at the head of the deregulation process in Latin America
and that's
making the market explode with new operators," she said.
Mexico's former telephone monopoly Telmex became a private
company in
1990, and the government opened the long distance market two years
ago and
auctioned off a large number of wireless frequencies last year. The
result has
been a huge number of new mobile phone, long distance, and wireless
companies.
Perez said Lucent estimates that all these new operators will generate
some
$2 billion in demand for equipment, services, networks and
infrastructure -- the
kinds of things Lucent provides -- in the next two years.
Lucent currently has contracts with Mexican long-distance company
Alestra,
which is part-owned by AT&T Corp. ; Mexican cellphone companys
Iusacell
and Telnor; and two other telecommunication firms, which provide
network
services to large companies and government agencies.
Perez said Lucent was also in talks with Unefon, one of three Mexican
companies hoping to begin competing with Telmex in the local
telephone
market this year by launching ambitious fixed wireless phone
networks.
Lucent competitor Ericsson is also negotiating with Unefon for the
same
contract -- which could amount to the building of a nationwide wireless
network.
Lucent sees 30 percent growth in cellular phone users in Mexico this
year
(down from 90 percent last year), fixed-line density rising from 10
percent now
to 15 percent in 2002, and wireless penetration up to 8.3 percent by
the same
year.
The company also sees Mexican Internet users growing 50 percent a
year to
7.0 million users nationwide by 2002.
Perez said Lucent's investment in Mexico would be in the low millions
of
dollars this year, mostly spending on training, client services and
personnel.
Investment last year was much higher, with some $40 million spent on
a new
Mexico City headquarters building inaugurated last December.
Lucent's personnel expanded some 55 percent in Mexico last year.
Perez said Mexico was a technological showcase for Lucent. The
company
built the first DWDM (dense wavelength digital multiplexing) network in
Latin
America here for Alestra. The technology allows sending multiple
channels of
information through the same line.
Perez said Lucent has extended the time frame for selling two plants
in
northern Mexico, which manufacture answering machines and
telephones. As
part of the end of its ties with Phillips Electronics , Lucent had hoped
to sell
the plants earlier this year, but is still looking for a buyer.
Lucent will not provide market share data but Perez said the company
is the
Mexican leader in providing phone systems to big users with 80
phones or
more, and in products such as call centers, voice mail and video
conferencing.
Perez said the only potential dark cloud for Lucent in Mexico in the
near future
was possible political and economic instability during the campaign
period and
the transition associated with next year's presidential elections.
"We are hoping for a transition without economic problems.
Investments are
very sensitive to the capital markets. Our market depends on the flow
of capital
to Mexico, stable interest rates, etc.," she said |
