Last year, total company sales reached $190 million, or double that of 2000’s $90 million, with the mobile network division accounting for the largest chunk of business. And while Alcatel’s business doubled, that of its competitors dropped. In 2001, Lucent’s division here generated sales of $8 million while Nortel managed only $15 million.
Alcatel’s mobile phone division (MPD) did not do as well as its mobile network division, but according to MPD officials, Alcatel is still the entry phone of choice.
"This year is expected to even be worse for the industry. Last year was phenomenal for Alcatel and we hope to maintain that level of sales ($190 million) this year," Alcatel Phils. vice-president Chris Carreon told The STAR.
In order to maintain last year’s level of sales amidst a shrinking market, Carreon said this may mean grabbing market share.
One of Alcatel’s biggest ongoing projects right now in the Philippines is providing a turnkey GSM/GPRS network for Digital Telecommunications Phils. Inc. which is the newest telecom company to enter the highly competitive GSM or digital cellular service business in the country.
According to API general manager, network services division Wulf Riedell, the $200-million project with Digitel involves supplying two switches (one in Libis and the other at the Galleria Corporate Center) and establishing 500 base stations prior to commercial operations to increase to 1000 when the project starts operating sometime end of the year.
Riedell said Alcatel’s sales and volume of business in the Asia Pacific region may grow by 50 percent this year compared to last year. "Asia Pacific is booming while America is declining and Europe is stagnant. We expect a huge growth in AsPac because the market is not as mature as the US and Europe and there is room for development," he told The STAR.
He added that while every European now has a cellular phone, in the Philippines, the cellular penetration rate is still a low 15 percent which means 15 out of 100 people has a mobile phone.
He noted that one of Alcatel Phils. biggest projects was when it was involved in the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT)’s zero-backlog project, as well as the submarine cable project of Telecphil.
Alcatel as a full turnkey network provider is involved in network design, construction, integration, and commissioning.
Yesterday, the company unveiled a relatively new business – network operator support (NOS) wherein Alcatel will be involved not only during the network implementation phase but also during the operating and maintenance phase (network care, billing care, customer care).
By the end of this year, Alcatel expects NOS to account for 10 to 15 percent of overall Philippine sales as against the present five percent. In the long term, officials expect this to grow to 30 percent.
At present, Alcatel has a small maintenance hub for full customer care for Islacom. "We are not limiting our service to Alcatel equipment. Islacom is using Siemens equipment and we are maintaining it for them for two years now in Panay and Negros," Riedell said.
Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries, including the Philippines, and has five business segments namely networking (mobile and data networks, switching), optics (terrestrial and submarine optical transmission, fiber optics), e-business (mobile telephony), space and components (satellites), and nexans (energy and telecom cables, etc.). – Mary Ann Reyes