Mobile, broadband, Digital TV, homeland security, WiMAX: these are some of the hot market segments driving the wireless transmission sector. Alberto Valsecchi, VP from Alcatel’s Wireless Transmission Division (WTD) talks about the drivers and trends in the wireless technologies Alcatel designs and produces.

Alberto, what sectors are Alcatel’s wireless transmission solutions addressing?
We have always been present in the conventional markets of fixed and mobile telephony, and in vertical segments such as defence, transport, energy and SMEs. What’s new is that we are focusing on other segments of particular importance for wireless transmission: I’m talking about homeland security, which includes networks for police forces, fire-fighters and border control. And then we have digital television, another very strong driver for wireless transmission networks in recent years. It’s not absolutely new, in the sense that analogue television networks also use microwave solutions. But now there is a new emphasis on this segment due to government intervention and the evolution of the market, in Europe and beyond.

What is the range of products you design and produce?
Alcatel’s transmission portfolio is truly complete. We have always been particularly strong in the microwave segment, where we have held a position of technological leadership for many years. We have both high capacity technologies, which in our case means SDH, and low capacity ones such as PDH, all including today Ethernet functionalities and interfaces.
We have technologies targeting ETSI markets – Europe, Africa, Middle East, South America and Asia – as well as for ANSI, the North American standard; long distance technologies for fixed and mobile operators, and technologies for urban applications, normally used for mobile traffic backhauling and broadband access networks.

But it is not just a matter of our product portfolio. I believe that what really makes Alcatel stand out is our know-how: our outstanding technological skill, amplified by our commercial presence and our ability to supply services in the territory we serve.

And, equally important, we have a local presence backed by global reach. Which, especially in the case of a market such as microwave, puts the emphasis on the customer’s relationship with our skilled technicians.

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It is important to have good technology. But it is just as important to be able to communicate it. How do you ensure that you are close to your customers?
This is an area upon which we’ve been focused. We have created, and we keep active, networks of people skilled in all business and technological aspects who form specialised communities. In this area, we periodically bring together Alcatel’s microwave business experts from all over the world, to share vision, best practices, product strategy. These are the people who introduce our technology to the market and they must be able to do it in the right language within a local context.

In terms of results, what sort of year was 2005?
The microwave market, like the telecom market in general, was at a low in 2003. In 2004 it began growing again. And this is a very positive signal, because some had viewed it as a mature technology. People thought it would be replaced by fibre optics and various broadband wireline technologies, but in actual fact it is very competitive in terms of capacity and flexibility and the business case is very strong in a number of segments. In 2005 the market has grown fast and Alcatel sales grew even faster than the market.

What are the drivers of this upswing?
The mobile segment above all, an area where microwave has always been used, accounts for much of the growing demand. Competition in the microwave market has now led to a drop in price which has made this technology even more attractive both for green-field and existing operators.

Wireless backbones for communication carriers in emerging countries and for mission critical applications in mature markets still represent a significant driver for growth.

And then there are a number of new developments in the vertical segments, as we have seen: homeland security, where microwave has a lot to offer, from border control to police and public security networks; digital television (DVB-T, DVB-H), already an important business area for Alcatel today, with contracts worth millions in Italy, China and Tunisia, to mention only a few, and many projects around the globe.

What do you expect to see in 2006?
I expect many segments to continue to grow. To simplify as much as possible, I’d say that wireless calls for wireless: today there is a great emphasis on wireless access networks such as Wi-fi, UMTS, WiMAX and DVB-T/H, which call for wireless transmission.

Alcatel is conducting ground-breaking research wireless transmission. What new developments are in store?
Alcatel continues to innovate as we maintain and further develop our complete, diversified product portfolio. We are working, among other things, on a project to bring IP technology into the microwave world. We’re certain that this will be a world “first”.