PARIS, October 29 /PRNewswire/ --

- Australian Carrier Offers Advanced Services on Industry's First IP/MPLS
Terabit Service Router Platform

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) today announced it has been
selected by AAPT, one of Australia's three largest telecommunications
companies, as the strategic partner for a network transformation project that
will expand and enhance its portfolio of premium business services offered to
the Australian market.

AAPT, which merged with PowerTel in 2007, is consolidating its
two network platforms increasing capacity and enhancing the overall
flexibility of the network. The consolidated network will strengthen AAPT's
delivery of premium business and wholesale services, including Ethernet, IP
and Ethernet virtual private networks and advanced voice over IP services
with the reliability and quality of service businesses require.

Incorporating the Alcatel-Lucent terabit service routing portfolio into
its network will enable AAPT to offer a wider range of services and higher
performance to more customers, all with reduced physical real estate
requirements.

"Over the past 18 months we've continued to invest in the
capability and reach of our access network, enabling us to provide homes and
businesses in Australia with world-class scaleable data solutions over an
advanced communications infrastructure at very competitive rates," AAPT Chief
Executive Officer Paul Broad said. "This strategic investment with
Alcatel-Lucent is the next step in the process to cement AAPT's position as
Australia's telecommunications provider of choice and follows our $20M MPLS
core implementation earlier this year. It's about delivering a broader suite
of products and services for the business community with the surety of a
consistent, reliable and straight-forward customer experience. We know if
we're easy to use, we'll be easy to choose."

"One of the major benefits of Alcatel-Lucent's solution is
the Service Aware Manager (SAM) platform, which we'll leverage extensively to
simplify and automate our provisioning and service assurance processes for
our customers," he added.

This investment also will standardise the Telecom New Zealand
and AAPT networks, making it easier for AAPT to maintain Telecom New
Zealand's national IP network that brings voice, Internet and mobile
telephony services together onto one integrated technology platform. In July,
Telecom New Zealand selected the Alcatel-Lucent IP portfolio for that
project.

"AAPT selected the Alcatel-Lucent terabit service router
because of the reliability and flexibility it will bring to its nationwide
network. Its capabilities will enable AAPT to provide more services to its
business customers, giving AAPT a competitive edge in this market," said
Hilary Mine, Vice President of Alcatel-Lucent activities in Australasia and
North Asia.

Alcatel-Lucent will deploy its award-winning IP/MPLS Terabit
Service Routing portfolio including the 7450 Ethernet Service Switch (ESS),
the 7750 Service Router (SR) and the 5620 Service Aware Manager (SAM)
platform. The Alcatel-Lucent 7450 ESS will enable AAPT to offer carrier grade
Ethernet VPN services while the 7750 SR will enhance IP capacity and service
flexibility within the network; the 5620 SAM will streamline network
commissioning, service activation, service troubleshooting and OSS
integration enabling AAPT to rapidly deploy and flexibly manage advanced
enterprise services.

Alcatel-Lucent's terabit service router portfolio leverages
the company's new FP2 chipset, which delivers sophisticated and optimized
network processing and traffic management at speeds up to 100 Gb/s. With the
simple addition of modules into the 7450 ESS and 7750 SR, these products more
than double the density of Gigabit and 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports as well as
support up to ten times the number of services per router - reducing the need
for capital expenditures and operating expenses as well as. It is also makes
more efficient use of power and bandwidth. The FP2 chipset provides a clear
path to 100 Gigabit Ethernet, improving return on investment versus other
edge routers, which currently use much lower performing and lower scale 10
Gb/s network processors.

AAPT joins a list of more than 200 service providers in more
than 90 countries that have selected the Alcatel-Lucent IP/MPLS portfolio,
which expands easily to terabit capacity and performance with modules based
on the award-winning FP2 chipset. During the second quarter of 2008,
Alcatel-Lucent reinforced its No. 2 position in IP/MPLS Edge according to
Ovum RHK.

This project is expected to be completed in May 2009.

About AAPT

AAPT is one of Australia's three largest telecommunications companies and
offers the full range of local and long distance voice, mobile, data and
internet services for residential, business, government and wholesale
customers. AAPT is 100% owned by Telecom New Zealand, New Zealand's largest
listed company and one of the top 20 largest listed companies on the
Australian Stock Exchange. http://home.aapt.com.au/

About Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) provides solutions that
enable service providers, enterprises 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