RIYADH, 20 May — Lucent Technologies has announced that it has signed an SR75 million ($20 million) agreement with Advanced Electronics Company for locally manufacturing and testing electronic components for various telecommunications projects in the Kingdom.
The agreement provides for the manufacturing of 1,900 units of LPZ Circuit Packs for the 170K project, 27,280 Intelligent Telephone Sockets (ITS) for the TEP6/WLL project and the performance of System Integration and Tests. Under the same agreement AEC will also import, configure, integrate and test the equipment needed by Lucent for the implementation of the Internet Phase III project awarded to it by Saudi Telecom Co.
Soon after the decision to implement the Kingdom’s TEP6 Program in August 1994, Lucent had awarded an SR945 million ($252 million) subcontract to AEC for the manufacture of 12 different types of circuit packs for use in transmission and switching systems. The switching circuit packs involve advanced manufacturing technology and are used in Lucent’s 5ESS switching system.
According to Muhammad Al-Dhalaan, director of public relations, the AEC carried out the systems integration and test of the 5ESS switch. In early 1999, Lucent, he said, entered into new agreements valued at SR146 million with AEC to manufacture switching equipment equivalent to 645K lines, which involved the transfer of additional technology to enable AEC to manufacture the new 32-subscriber line card.
With the implementation of other similar agreements from time to time, the total value of manufacturing subcontracts awarded by Lucent to AEC has now reached over SR1.41 billion ($377 million) including the cost of materials and equipment.
AEC added value through its labor and expertise in transferring these materials into high technology communications equipment. Al-Dhalaan said the testing and integration of the switching equipment manufactured equals about 20 percent of this total value.
Lucent has declared that it will continue to support the Kingdom’s offset interests in developing the local economy through the purchase of electronics products from AEC, said Michael C. Craft, president of Lucent Technologies. Effective collaboration between AEC and Lucent has been very productive in the past and would continue in the future too, he added.
