CALABASAS, Calif., May 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alcatel (NYSE: ALA; Paris: CGEP.PA) today announced that the Alcatel OmniSwitch 9700, a full featured, high-performance 10-Gigabit Ethernet core switch, has been named as a 2006 Well-Connected Awards winner in the Network Infrastructure category by CMP Media LLC's Network Computing Magazine. Finalists were chosen from the technology solutions that Network Computing tested and evaluated in its labs in early 2006. "Alcatel is extremely honored to receive the prestigious Network Computing's Well-Connected Award. Their real world testing labs provide evidence that the OmniSwitch 9700 has achieved our value proposition objectives of availability, manageability and security, which are all necessary to provide enterprises with the best foundation to support data, voice and video applications across the infrastructure," said Tom Burns, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Alcatel's enterprise network infrastructure activities. "Network Computing magazine is providing a very important service to enterprise network managers and the industry in general by doing thorough research and then making recommendations to their readers." The Alcatel OmniSwitch 9700 was also recently named as Network Computing's Editor's Choice for its "superb manageability, reliability and ease of use. This switch best supports the SNMP standard and was the only participant to supply a web interface from which we could perform many tasks normally accomplished on a CLI." The Alcatel OmniSwitch 9700 is part of the OmniSwitch 9000 family, a series of switches that deliver future-proof solutions with no hidden costs, while offering improved security, high availability and smart performance for today's networked applications, including voice-over-IP, video collaboration and database applications. The Alcatel OmniSwitch 9700 is built on a new architecture that provides resiliency and security features through the Alcatel Operating System (AOS), and is optimized for use in the network core and aggregation layer where large amounts of user data are consolidated for 10 Gigabit connections. The Alcatel OmniSwitch 9000s are part of Alcatel's end-to-end enterprise switch family that includes stackable and modular edge switches, which use the same AOS for simplified manageability, high availability, security, and reduced total cost of ownership. "The Well-Connected Awards are unique because they're the only industry awards given by technologists based on real-world use and integration. We view all products, technologies and services from the same perspective as our readers -- our peers -- do," said John Siefert, Publisher of Network Computing. "This is an important distinction from any other award program -- the products selected in the Well-Connected Awards have been tested in an actual business environment and judged by our editors themselves. They are truly innovative solutions that work -- and we have the metrics to prove it." About Network Computing Network Computing is the trusted information source which helps 220,000 technology leaders turn business strategy into reality. The editorial team consists of real-world IT veterans who provide objective information and analysis on technologies and solutions that are tested in IT media's only Real-World Labs -- a setting which mirrors our audience's work environment. Network Computing's critical analysis of market solutions and their impact on an organization is infused in every aspect of the brand, from the award- winning publication and networkcomputing.com, to NWCReports.com, and the events such as the Expert Series Tour and Technology Leader Forum. Network Computing is consistently honoured for its editorial excellence, garnering accolades from the American Society of Business Publication Editors (ASBPE), as well as winning Maggie Awards from Western Publications Association and Folio magazine's Ozzie Awards. About Alcatel Alcatel provides communications solutions to telecommunication carriers, Internet service providers and enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video applications to their customers or employees. Alcatel brings its leading position in fixed and mobile broadband networks, applications and services, to help its partners and customers build a user-centric broadband world. With sales of EURO 13.1 billion and 58,000 employees in 2005, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet: http://www.alcatel.com/ Visit Alcatel 4 booth # 825 at Interop, May 2-4 DATASOURCE: Alcatel CONTACT: press, Tracy Dupree, +1-818-878-4408, or , or Regine Coqueran, +33-0-1-40-76-49-24, or , or Mark Burnworth, HQ, +33-0-1-40-76-50-84, or , or Stephane Lapeyrade, HQ, +33-0-1-40-76-12-74, or , or investor relations, Pascal Bantegnie, +33-0-1-40-76-52-20, or , or Nicolas Leyssieux, +33-0-1-40-76-37-32, or , or Maria Alcon, +33-0-1-40-76-15-17, or , or Charlotte Laurent- Ottomane, +1-703-668-3571, or , all of Alcatel Web site: http://www.alcatel.com/

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