Nortel (News - Alert), a leader in next-generation communication technologies, reportedly completed the sale of its UMTS radio access business (UTRAN) to the Paris based telecom giant Alcatel (News - Alert)-Lucent on the last day of the year 2006. The two companies had signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Sept. 1, 2006, and a definitive agreement finalizing the deal on Dec. 4, 2006. In exchange of its high-speed mobile operations, Nortel has received a sum of US$ 320 million in cash, minus significant deductions.

As per the deal, almost 1,700 employees of Nortel’s UMTS access business have been absorbed into the Alcatel-Lucent system. In addition, Alcatel-Lucent has acquired the product portfolio, associated patents and tangible assets of the business. Also thrown in are the recent orders from customers.

Now that the deal has closed, Alcatel-Lucent UMTS solutions will power the services of 25 percent of the total UMTS operators worldwide and the tally of the customers of the company will reach 40. With its expertise in CDMA/EV-DO, UMTS/HSPA, GSM/EDGE and WiMAX, Alcatel-Lucent is all set to pioneer a new revolution in 4G wireless services.

“Our aim is to achieve the optimum combination of Alcatel-Lucent and Nortel’s technologies, with minimum customer disruption. We are well positioned to capture the UMTS market growth opportunity,” said Mary Chan, head of Alcatel-Lucent’s wireless activities, in a press release. “Our customers will clearly benefit from the high value this acquisition brings, and the pre-integration work has progressed very well. Our combined expertise and portfolios will enable us to deliver the most compelling UMTS offer for our customers, allowing them to provide their subscribers with innovative and high-speed 3G services.”

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Divya Narain is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To see more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.