Alcatel-Lucent enables the “Cercle Passeport Télécoms” program to expand internationally

Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) announces the launch of a new initiative within the framework of its participation in the “Cercle Passeport Télécoms” program. This new initiative will be implemented by the Alcatel-Lucent Foundation and consists in helping students from disadvantaged areas in France to improve their level of English via telephone conversations with volunteer Alcatel-Lucent employees based in the United States.

70 English speaking Alcatel-Lucent employees have already volunteered to support this new initiative for the upcoming 2007-2008 school year.

This new program expands the “Cercle Passeport Télécoms” to an international level by enabling Alcatel-Lucent employees in the United States to become tutors of French students. It also prepares the students to obtain the necessary level of English required to participate in the entry exams of the Cercle’s partner schools. The US-based tutors will hold a 30-minute telephone conversation per week with one or more French students. To support these conversations, the volunteers will be briefed by the student’s English teachers and will receive supporting material such as a list of possible discussion topics as well as progress support sheets.

“This initiative is an important milestone for the Alcatel-Lucent Foundation. For the first time, French and American volunteers are brought together with the common objective of helping students improve their competencies. Through this initiative, Alcatel-Lucent further strengthens its commitment to cultural diversity and social coeducation,” said Caroline Guillaumin, Vice President Corporate Communications and Corporate Social Responsibility.

Alcatel-Lucent will actively pursue its participation in the Cercle Passeport Télécoms in France for the second consecutive year. For the 2007-2008 school year, 152 Alcatel-Lucent employees have enlisted as tutors for the Cercle Passeport Télécoms .