Lucent to Work with Italy to Accelerate Mobile Internet Industry

A multi-million dollar plan by Lucent Technologies Inc. (Murray Hill, NJ) may help to stimulate Italy's goal of achieving global leadership in the development of third-generation (3G) mobile communications services and applications. Lucent said it is committing technical and business expertise to promote collaborative projects with government, industry, and academia to accelerate development and introduction of mobile Internet applications, services, and products that take advantage of the high-speed wireless data capabilities available with 3G networks. It includes Bell Laboratories technical staff dedicated to collaborative projects with locally based mobile Internet applications developers.

Specifically, Lucent plans to do several things:

• It will create a Bell Laboratories Research & Development Center that will partner closely with Italian universities. The center will include advanced facilities to enable start-ups to test their products and leading researchers to test their ideas. Several sites in the southern part of the country are under consideration.

• The company plans to create a UMTS integration center in Milan to enable mobile operators and other key players to collaborate on world-class solutions, validate performance, and conduct interoperability testing.

• Lucent also plans to explore partnership opportunities with key Italian institutions—government, business and academia—to bring about locally-based entrepreneurial initiatives to understand and deliver a next-generation mobile infrastructure optimized to Italy's needs.

• In cooperation with the company's wholly owned venture capital subsidiary Lucent Venture Partners, it will collaborate with venture investment firms to provide initial working capital for start-up companies with creative business plans in the areas related to mobile Internet technologies and applications.

• It will also introduce Lucent's Cooperative Innovations affiliates program to Italy to accelerate the introduction of mobile Internet and UMTS applications.

"Based on similar business incubator projects, we believe the total effect of this approach will create some 200 new jobs in the next two years, and potentially up to 1, 000 more skilled positions with a score of new companies over the next five years," said Jim Brewington, president of Lucent's wireless networks group. "The convergence of mobility and Internet applications is the fuel that will drive a whole new industry of UMTS applications, services and products."

With its 28 million mobile customers and wireless penetration rate exceeding 50%, Italy is among the top global markets for mobile communications, Brewington said. He said the country is positioned to use the convergence of wireless technology and the Internet as a means for stimulating business growth.

In separate announcement, Dix.it, a consortium formed by leading Italian firms, disclosed its selection of Lucent as its technological partner in its pursuit of a 3G license in Italy.

Edited by Ellen Jensen