Launch of the Alcatel Meetings on "Women and information technologies"

Paris, March 2, 2006 — Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) announces the launch of a series of debates on the "Women and information technologies" issue, with tomorrow’s first one being about "How to attract more women in scientific jobs". This meeting, with Claudie Haigneré, astronaut, former minister and advisor to the European Space Agency General manager, will be hosted by Marie-Odile Monchicourt, scientific reporter on the news radio France Infos.

The Alcatel Meetings are part of the "Women in Leadership" initiative, a five-year program launched in March 2005 to increase gender balance in top management within the Group.

"There are a number of women who hold top level management positions at Alcatel, but they are still few in number compared to the total percentage of women in the Group" said Serge Tchuruk, Chairman and CEO of Alcatel. "To get full value from the female talent that exists at Alcatel, we must address those company-related reasons which may be preventing some women from reaching their full career potential"

Although women are hired at Alcatel in equal proportion to their availability on the labor market, this proportion is only 25% of the total headcount, as men are in majority within the technology educational system. Consequently, the first debate will address this issue. Subsequent ones will cover: influence of Information and Communication technologies (ICT) on the professional/private life balance, influence of women on ICT development, and ICT contribution for the women in emerging markets, etc. The goal is to organize a debate every two months.

These Meetings are opened to Alcatel employees as well as to institutional audience.

For more information about diversity at Alcatel:
http://www.alcatel.com/sustainable/salaries/diversite1.htm

About Alcatel
Alcatel provides communications solutions to telecommunication carriers, Internet service providers and enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video applications to their customers or employees. Alcatel brings its leading position in fixed and mobile broadband networks, applications and services, to help its partners and customers build a user-centric broadband world. With sales of EURO 13.1 billion and 58,000 employees in 2005, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries.

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Mark Burnworth

Alcatel

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