Alcatel Optronics expands component production capacity at Lannion, France
Source: Alcatel Optronics
Significant investment confirms Company s leadership in opto-electronic components
Paris. Alcatel Optronics (Paris: CGO.PA; NASDAQ: ALAO), a leading supplier of optical components for telecommunication networks, today inaugurated an extension of its production facility based in Lannion, Brittany. This new production platform of more than 20 500 square feet including 12 100 square feet of clean rooms, integrates state-of-the-art technologies and will allow the expansion of manufacturing capacity dedicated to laser sources and pump laser modules. This expansion accounts for the creation of more than 150 new technical jobs over the course of 2000 and represents an investment of more than 15 million Euros.
Alcatel Optronics has multiplied its production capacity to keep pace with the explosion in telecommunications traffic due to the expansion of the Internet. Two key product lines for terrestrial and submarine applications are concerned: laser sources, which emit the light used in terrestrial transmission systems, and submarine and terrestrial pump lasers, key elements in building optical amplifiers.
"With this achievement as part of our ambitious investment plan, Alcatel Optronics launches a new phase of its growth", explains Jean-Christophe Giroux, Chief Executive Officer of Alcatel Optronics. "It illustrates our industrial strategy of developing the technological specialization of each of our production sites, allowing the flexibility to manufacture a variety of key components. In a period in which market demand evolves quickly, industrial processes and infrastructure must be modular, flexible, and intelligent. This model will be applied to our future extensions."
The recruitment program, launched in 2000, has required associated technical training sessions. This program will continue over the course of 2001.
About Opto-electronic components Laser sources transform electrical signals into optical signals. At the other end of the line, optical receivers transform optical signals back to electrical, the format recognized by telephones and computers. Located along the optical transmission path, optical amplifiers extend the distance covered by the signal. Within optical amplifiers, pump module provide the optical energy that boosts the transmission signal via a special doped fiber also within the amplifier. Laser sources, receivers, amplifiers, and pumps require electrical power, hence their classification as active components. Passive components, also manufactured by Alcatel Optronics, are used to filter, select, and direct optical signals.
About clean rooms Clean rooms offer an environment for the manufacture of these components which is temperature and humidity controlled, and protected from dust. It is imperative to avoid the contamination of these sensitive components, for which some critical parameters are measured in microns.
About Alcatel Optronics Alcatel Optronics designs, manufactures and sells high performance optical components, modules and integrated sub-systems for use in terrestrial and submarine optical telecommunications networks. Operating state-of-the-art manufacturing plants in North America and Europe, Alcatel Optronics is a leading supplier of DWDM lasers, photodetectors, optical amplifiers, high-speed interface modules and key passive devices such as arrayed waveguide multiplexers and Fiber Bragg Grating filters. It also has experience in integrating active and passive components and modules into sub-systems. The Optronics Division is part of Alcatel s Optics Group which comprises Alcatel s world-leading activities in optical networking, including submarine and terrestrial transmission systems, fiber optics and optical components. For more information, visit Alcatel Optronics on the Internet: www.alcatel.com/optronics
About Alcatel Alcatel builds next generation networks, delivering integrated end-to-end voice and data networking solutions to established and new carriers, as well as enterprises and consumers worldwide. With 120,000 employees and sales of EURO 23 billion in 1999, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet: www.alcatel.com
Alcatel Press Contact (France): Laurent de Segonzac / Alcatel HQ Tel : +33 (0) 1 40 76 15 04, laurent.de-segonzac@alcatel.fr Guy Mesquida / Alcatel Optronics Tel : +33 (0) 1 64 49 49 03, guy.mesquida@alcatel.fr
Investor Relations and U.S./UK Press Contact: Charlotte Laurent-Ottomane Tel : +1 (703) 715 3927, charlotte.laurent-ottomane@alcatel.fr
Charlotte Laurent-Ottomane
Tel : +1 (703) 715 3927, charlotte.laurent-ottomane@alcatel.fr
E-mail: charlotte.laurent-ottomane@alcatel.fr
Web site: http://www.alcatel.com
