Alcatel-Lucent VoIP Solution Improves Services Delivery to Citizens of Martin County, Florida

PARIS (Map) - PARIS, March 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced that Martin County, Florida, has selected a turnkey Alcatel-Lucent voice, WiFi and contact center solution to provide voice over IP (VoIP) services to County residents and to help reduce operating expenses for the organization.

Martin County, which covers 545 square miles between Orlando and Miami along Florida's eastern coast, is an existing Alcatel-Lucent customer having replaced its leased telephony services that connected its nearly 30 locations countywide with the Alcatel-Lucent OmniPCX Enterprise system in 2006. The highly resilient VoIP solution has the distinction of being one of few telephone systems in the region to have survived major hurricanes in recent years without an outage. Today the Martin County complete solution also includes OmniSwitch wireless LAN networks and OmniGenesys contact centers.

The new network was put in place to support the County government in delivering faster and better service to its residents. The OmniGenesys contact centers help residents who are calling for building permits, construction licenses and inspections, solid waste removal, water utility service/payments, or who are scheduling county-provided bus service for seniors and handicapped residents. Martin County's seven libraries feature WiFi networks that provide high-speed web connections to patrons and staff.

"We wanted a networking foundation to match the culture of service we have instilled in the county government, and the Alcatel-Lucent solution provides us with the performance and features we need," said Kevin Kryzda, Martin County's Chief Information Officer. "Installing this system is also a considerable cost saving for the county, because it cuts our ongoing telecommunications expenses in half."

"Martin County is a trend setter among government agencies," said Tom Burns, Chief Operating Officer of Alcatel-Lucent's Enterprise activities. "By improving community relations and interconnecting its citizens with collaboration over a secure high speed network, they have accomplished their goal of making government services responsive and cost-effective."

Both the 2006 and current phases of the Martin County buildout have been implemented by Alcatel-Lucent's Business Partner Morse Communications. "To properly implement their network, Martin County needed a wide range of technologies and services - from data networking to voice networking to applications to security. An integrated solution of this magnitude is available from only a few vendors and we were confident that the Alcatel-Lucent Morse combination was the right choice." said Bryan May, vice president of sales.

About Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) provides solutions that enable service providers, enterprise and governments worldwide, to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. As a leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent offers the end-to-end solutions that enable compelling communications services for people at home, at work and on the move. With operations in more than 130 countries, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with global reach. The company has the most experienced global services team in the industry, and one of the largest research, technology and innovation organizations in the telecommunications industry. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 17.8 billion in 2007 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel- Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com