In the last week, Lucent has announced two hallmark deals with major customers. If these deals are signs of things to come, Lucent could be on the path to a long-awaited comeback. But, if investors have learned anything about the company, it's that things are seldom what they seem to be. On Tuesday, the company announced that Qwest Communications would use Lucent's Stinger digital-subscriber line products to expand its service area to include 14 more states. A Lucent representative says the deal is the company's largest sale of a DSL product to date.
Analysts are even more impressed by the caliber of the customer.
He notes that Lucent, which until now had only won deals with smaller local-exchange carrier, beat out Cisco Systems, the incumbent vendor. Lucent had another big win last week, announcing that Global Crossing is the first to purchase Lucent's WaveStar LambdaRouter, the world's first all-optical switch for directing telecommunications traffic. Lucent says that six other major carriers are currently testing the LambdaRouter as well, and that it is hoping the product will gain traction soon. A lot of the customers watch each other, and they are waiting to see if the technology gets proved. We are making an important step in seeing revenue.