Alcatel-Lucent Q3 loss almost doubles year-on-year

Alcatel-Lucent announced another loss-making quarter, which Ben Verwaayen, its CEO, said was "impacted by overall carrier spending dynamics and product mix, especially in Wireless".

He said that the company is making "good progress" with its restructure efforts, with cost savings of €450 million (US$593 million) since the beginning of the year, and the company is continuing with its plan to cut 5,500 jobs.

Verwaayen also said that the company is taking action to strengthen its balance sheet, stating that "we are reviewing a variety of options, which we will communicate when appropriate".

For the third quarter, Alcatel-Lucent reported a net loss of €146 million, compared with a prior-year profit of €194 million, on revenue of €3.6 billion, down from €3.7 billion.

Sales in its Wireless business were €837 million, down 18.9 per cent from €1.03 billion.

The company said the Wireless unit "faced another difficult year-over-year comparison", which, when combined with overall cautious spending from service providers, led to declines in most technologies, and especially in legacy equipment.

It said its LTE business showed stability, driven by continued investment in the US, despite a strong Q3 last year. It announced a "major contract win", being named as a supplier for the largest share of China Mobile’s TD-LTE trial network rollout.

It also said that US operator Sprint picked its LightRadio Metro Cells to deliver mobile broadband services to high-traffic areas such as entertainment venues, transport hubs and campuses.