New Alcatel-Lucent CEO Ben Verwaayen said his plan to return the company to profitability includes stepping up investments in LTE and pulling back on WiMAX investments. During a conference call with reporters, Verwaayen said the company, which has posted seven straight quarters of losses, will increase investments in LTE as the world's major operators plan to deploy the 4G technology as well as continue investing in WCDMA and CDMA2000 1x EV-DO. It will reduce spending on WiMAX, GSM and CDMA 1x. Nortel also announced earlier this year a shift in focus from WiMAX to LTE.
Alcatel-Lucent said it would eliminate 1,000 management positions and 5,000 contracting jobs on top of the 16,500 positions the company has already said it would lop off by the end of 2009. These latest reductions, Verwaayen said, will make the vendor "more agile" by eliminating in-house duplication.
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