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Jim Barthold
Lucent Technologies Inc. has planted its flag on the European continent by acquiring privately held DeltaKabel Telecom cv, a Gouda, Netherlands cable modem and Internet protocol (IP) telephony technology developer.
The acquisition enlarges Lucent's worldwide presence and complements North American-based research & development, said Dee Dee Nye, VP/GM-cable solutions.
"This is really geared to Europe," she emphasized. "We believe Europe is going to emerge just like North America has."
Europeans, she said, want cheaper Internet access than the high rates they are paying for traditional dial-up service. With continental deregulation taking hold, DeltaKabel, with 60, mostly engineering, em-ployees, is building cable modem and IP telephony products to fill those needs.
"The European market is very different than the North American market because it's a lot of smaller players and it is very definitely relationship-based," Nye noted. "These guys really understand the customers very well and what they're looking for."
DeltaKabel also understands cable technology, she added.
"They started by really understanding the plant infrastructure, so they have a really good technical skills handle on cable infrastructure throughout Europe," she explained. "Then they moved into the new technology and they have not only cable modems but some IP telephony trials going on as well."
DeltaKabel has a presence in Singapore and the Asian markets, Nye pointed out, although "I just don't see the market developing quite as rapidly over there." The company is involved in international standards efforts, including DOCSIS, Euro-DOCSIS and DVB-DAVIC.
Since DeltaKabel will be rolled into Lucent's cable group, there will be inevitable inter-company cooperation, Nye admitted.
"There are some things we're doing in the software area and management of these systems," she continued. "They're very interested in what we're doing there and we're very interested in how fast they've been able to get what they've got done. Literally, they're lightning speed in their technological development."
Nye declined to put a price tag on the purchase, noting, "It's a great deal."
DeltaKabel's equipment has already been deployed by Dutch cable operators in six communities, and is being tested in 15 European and Asian high-speed Internet and IP-based cable telephony trials.
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