Alcatel Lucent: Educational institutions in Midwest gain discounts and more choices for communications and collaboration with MHEC and Alcatel-Lucent

The Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC) opened up new communications opportunities for its members by bringing on Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) as an approved vendor of voice and data networking solutions. By using the MHEC contract, higher education institutions, K-12 districts and schools and education-related nonprofit organizations in a dozen states can more easily and economically advance their communications networks with Alcatel-Lucent communication products, solutions and services.

As an approved vendor, Alcatel-Lucent offers special pricing and packages to educational institutions within MHEC member states. 'Being able to reduce costs and still get quality products and services is so important to our states right now,' said MHEC President Larry Isaak. 'This agreement with Alcatel-Lucent is an opportunity for institutions to take advantage of the capabilities that advanced communications equipment and services can bring to the classroom.'

MHEC is the Midwest's largest interstate resource-sharing commission for higher education, one of only four such interstate compacts nationally. The MHEC Technologies Committee promotes technology products and services that support education needs, expands training opportunities, and advocates on behalf of education in new product development. It also leverages the combined volume of education organizations in MHEC member states to negotiate favorable agreements with technology vendors. MHEC serves Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin, reaching over 1,000 universities, with over four million students.

Building on its global expertise in communications network infrastructure and the innovative heritage of Bell Labs, Alcatel-Lucent offers solutions that enable educational organizations to become more safe, secure, 'green' and mobile.

Alcatel-Lucent Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) solution allows an institution to centralize its main voice switches and extend remote call servers with back up circuits at each campus building to reduce telephony costs. IP networking provides the bandwidth and security needed by students and faculty for on-campus communications and offers industry ranking low-power consumption. And wireless local area network (WLAN) solutions provide students and faculty the ability to gain Internet access anywhere, creating a more interactive learning environment for students.

'Alcatel-Lucent believes educational institutions can be more successful by linking their networks, people and processes to simplify communications, better engage students and secure their campuses,' said Helle Kristoffersen, Vice President of Vertical Markets for Alcatel-Lucent. 'Fundamentally, it's about connecting knowledge in real time to differentiate the quality of education and the overall quality of the institution. As an approved vendor for MHEC, we are positioned to help our customers such as Missouri's Lincoln University to leverage its investment in communications. The MHEC contract helps us extend the opportunity to additional educational institutions across the United States,' she added.

Lincoln University hosts an Alcatel-Lucent network and has rounded out their voice, data and wireless communications for students, faculty and staff through the MHEC contract.

More information about Alcatel-Lucent education, collaboration and safe campus solutions is available online. And for more information on Alcatel-Lucent's MHEC involvement, please see www.mhectech.org/alcatel-lucent .

About MHEC

The Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC), founded in 1991, consists of twelve states: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin. MHEC sponsors a variety of programs to reduce costs, to increase student access and to conduct policy research and analysis. The Compact is statutorily created and governed by a board comprised of five commissioners from each member state.

Commissioners include legislators, governor's representatives and higher education leaders.

About the Alcatel-Lucent dynamic enterprise vision

Alcatel-Lucent helps enterprises worldwide turn every interaction into a business opportunity. By interconnecting their core assets -- network, people, processes and knowledge -- dynamic enterprises realize competitive advantage through strengthened relationships, simplified communications, and improved performance.

About Alcatel-Lucent

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is the trusted partner of service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide, providing solutions to deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organization in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 16.98 billion in 2008 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris.

CONTACT: Press Office, Alcatel-Lucent e-mail: press@alcatel-lucent.com WWW: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com

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