Alcatel in black after big losses

French telecommunications giant Alcatel Lucent is looking to the Asia-Pacific region as part of a strategy to drive itself back into profitability.

Sean Dolan, president of the Asia-Pacific region for Alcatel Lucent, said business across the six areas that make up the region had been going well.

"The company as a whole is looking at Apac as a growth engine," said Dolan.

He said for the first time the board of directors held a meeting in Shanghai, as opposed to France or the United States.

"There was a clear message behind that, we actually think that the region itself, not only in terms of growth but in terms of innovation, is starting to set the trend," said Dolan.

In an announcement that took the market by surprise, Alcatel Lucent last week posted its first profit in 11 quarters.

Aided by the sale of its stake in electronics company Thales, Alcatel Lucent's second-quarter net income was €14 million ($30.3 million) compared with a loss of €1.1 billion a year ago.

The world's largest supplier of fixed-line phone networks, which has lost about €8.5 billion since Alcatel bought Lucent Technologies in 2006, is making progress on its plan to be profitable in 2010, said chief executive Ben Verwaayen.

In New Zealand, Alcatel Lucent has a longstanding relationship with Telecom which sees it providing technology for its mobile networks, including XT, and the next generation broadband network.

Dolan said the scale and breadth of the Telecom relationship was unique and was used as a "reference site" for promoting similar managed service offers in India.

Dolan said he was confident the company has the skill-set and products to take advantage of fibre roll-out plans in the region.

In addition to New Zealand's $1.5 billion and Australia's A$43 billion ($54.6 billion) broadband spend-up, Dolan said China and India were also investing heavily in fixed-line networks.

"I would say across the board we're seeing a pick-up in terms of what people want to do with broadband," said Dolan.

Alcatel Lucent has commercially released its version of the femtocell technology in the UK and recently demonstrated the technology to New Zealand telcos.

Creating a low-powered version of a cell site connected to a home's broadband connection, femtocells offer improved indoor coverage and the possibility for customers to quickly download files to their mobile phones.

Dolan said the future availability of high-speed broadband meant the possibility of wider use of femtocells.