Alcatel-Lucent Launches ng Connect Program

Alcatel-Lucent is kicking off a multi-industry initiative -- the ng Connect Program -- with the aim of establishing a rich and diverse ecosystem of infrastructure, devices, content and applications for both mobile and fixed broadband networks including 4G, Long Term Evolution (LTE), GPON and other ultra high bandwidth technologies. The goal is to extend a seamless broadband experience to mobile phones, computers, cars, gaming systems and more, enabling consumers to stream more content, run more sophisticated applications on-the-go, and communicate in the most popular formats of today, and tomorrow. Initial members of the nitiative include HP, Samsung, and 4DK, Buzznet, chumby, Connect2Media, dimedis, FISHLABS, QNX, SIGNEXX, Total Immersion, TuneWiki and Words & Numbers.

The ng Connect Program will bring together companies, large and small, that are developing cutting edge technologies and services which will reshape the way people communicate, interact online and on-the-go, including augmented reality, mobile games and compelling social networking/entertainment experiences. By helping bring new applications and services to market more quickly, the ng Connect Program will facilitate an expansion of the revenue base for network operators and others. To accomplish this, ng Connect Program will promote a variety of pre-integrated solutions featuring the latest innovations in network, device and software technologies.


The ng Connect Program's initial phase has three goals: accelerating deployment of new services and devices through pre-integration and validation; identifying and promoting new revenue streams through innovative business models; and broadening the wireless broadband device landscape to include consumer electronics products, industrial and consumer equipment for machine-to-machine communications, and automotive connectivity. The ng Connect Program will showcase the next generation connected user experience through proof-of-concept solutions.


"As we move into the next phase of the evolution of broadband networks with the advent of ultra high bandwidth systems such as 4G and GPON, it is critical that a broad spectrum of companies -- including those from industries that are not normally associated -- come together in a strong ecosystem that can effectively innovate, remove business and technical barriers and define new business models to accelerate mass adoption of new services and devices," said Tim Krause, Chief Marketing Officer at Alcatel-Lucent, a founding member of the ng Connect Program. "The establishment of the ng Connect program is an important step in our strategy to create an open ecosystem so that the trusted capabilities of service providers can be combined with the innovation of the web to bring whole new classes of services to market, services that can leverage the growing capabilities of service aware IP networks, IMS and more. The ng Connect Program is dedicated to bringing this ecosystem to life."


The ng Connect Program will demonstrate end-to-end next generation broadband applications at GSMA Mobile World Congress on the Alcatel-Lucent stand, located in Hall 8 #A147. Demos will include a next generation augmented reality viral advertising application in a multi-screen environment, a next generation music experience and social networking service and a real-time next generation healthcare application that allows patients to be monitored remotely using a combination of mobile handsets and televisions.
http://www.ngconnect.orghttp://www.alcatel-lucent.com