IP Democracy: Telecom Tech Supplier Consolidation Begins

In the midst of a wave of telecom provider mergers, the industry’s tech suppliers are getting squeezed, a development that will doubtless spur a echo-round of telecom vendor mergers. During the industry’s trade show TelecomNext held in Las Vegas, the exhibitors on the floor, most of which were tech providers, could talk about nothing else.

Now, word comes that two of the top telco tech suppliers, Lucent and Alcatel, are in merger discussions, with a potential $33 billion deal in the offing, according to the Wall Street Journal. This news follows a disputed article in LightReading suggesting that Lucent and Nokia, among other players, are bidding to buy top telco tech vendor Siemens Communications Group.

Siemens executives bluntly deny they are preparing to sell out to Lucent, Nokia or anybody else, but do admit they’ve held discussions with a lot of rivals about how to best align forces to deal with the consolidating telco business, discussions they claim every tech vendor is holding. Whatever the case may be, there’s no denying that a round of consolidation is in order for the vendors who supply the shrinking pool of telecom providers.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on March 23, 2006 10:08 PM to IP Democracy