SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 27 -- Lucent Technologies (NYSE:LU) today launched the Lucent Hosted Custom Applications Center, which is designed to help service providers rapidly deliver innovative and personalized new services.

As part of Lucent's overall applications strategy -- to offer wireline and wireless carriers differentiated "blended lifestyle" services that help drive revenue growth by stimulating traffic in the network -- the Lucent Hosted Custom Applications Center will enable service providers to rapidly introduce differentiated services, with low upfront investments and other operational and financial advantages. The announcement was made here at the CTIA Wireless I.T. & Entertainment 2005 event.

Lucent's hosting capabilities will be managed from one of Lucent's four carrier-grade Global Network Operations Centers (GNOCs) in Denver, Colorado, Hilversum, The Netherlands, Sydney, Australia, and Hamilton, New Zealand.

"This is a crucial component in Lucent's overall applications strategy," said John Meyer, president of Lucent Worldwide Services. "Lucent is committed to supporting service providers by enabling "blended lifestyle" services supported by best-in-class integration and customization services, in addition to our own carrier-grade product portfolio. And our hosting capabilities enable Lucent to help service providers turn up new services much more quickly than was previously possible."

Dean and Company, a leading consultancy, projects the total address market for hosted content to be more than $6 billion in 2006, growing to more than $11 billion in 2009. To address this market opportunity, Lucent offers wireless and wireline service providers the ability to cost effectively offer a variety of carrier-grade applications, including multimedia content, messaging and location-based services, and have them hosted by Lucent Worldwide Services.

The Lucent Hosted Custom Applications Center leverages Lucent's applications product portfolio, including the Lucent Intelligent Services Gateway (ISG) and the Lucent iLocator location-based services platform. The Lucent ISG will serve as the foundation of the hosted custom application center's Service Delivery Platform and provide a common environment for creation and execution on new blended services.

Lucent's Hosted Custom Applications Center will also incorporate innovative Bell Labs technology such as identity binding, advanced anti-spam technologies, and authentication capabilities associated with the Mail Delivery Gateway and Lucent's Vortex(TM) service personalization. Part of the Lucent Bell Labs Service Enhancement Layer in Lucent's IMS-based solutions, Lucent Vortex enables personalization and rapid service customization of end user services via a new rules engine -- distributed throughout the network -- that enables network operators to quickly modify network behaviors to target particular customer segments or offer quality of service guarantees.

The Lucent Hosted Custom Applications Center complements the existing suite of previously announced hosted IP PBX, messaging, security and MiLife(TM) services.

The Lucent Hosted Custom Applications Center will also leverage Lucent's Market Advantage Program (MAP) for Application Partners to ensure a steady stream of next generation multimedia applications and content. MAP for Applications Partners provides application developers and content providers with a rich set of resources such as software tools, training and accreditation programs, testing and demonstration resources and marketing support. This program fosters the development of a vast array of applications that service providers can access to help them provide more services to their customers and therefore generate new revenue.

LUCENT HOSTED APPLICATIONS

Phase 1 of the rollout for the Lucent Hosted Custom Applications Center includes a suite of customizable content, messaging and location-based applications, including:

   - Video Greetings: Enables the subscriber to create personalized video
     greeting cards for family members and friends by animating a character
     or picture with an audio message generated using text-to-speech
     technology or a recorded audio track.  The greeting can then be sent to
     the recipient's handset via Multimedia Messaging Services, Short
     Message Services, Instant Messaging web or e-mail.  Lucent also
     announced today an agreement with Pulse Entertainment, a provider of
     customizable animated avatar software, to support Lucent's Video
     Greetings service (see separate release issued today).

   - Media Delivery Solution: Enables subscribers to purchase and download
     entertainment greetings to personalize their voice mailboxes.  It also
     lets subscribers purchase and send celebrity greetings and other
     greeting cards to the voice-mail boxes of friends and family.

   - Location-Based Services (LBS) applications: Based on iLocator, which
     was developed by Bell Labs and is a component of Lucent's blended
     lifestyle applications for IMS-based networks.  LBS applications
     enabled by Lucent's iLocator platform include Friend Finder, Driving
     Directions and Points of Interest, which can be deployed as
     revenue-generating subscriber or per-use services that capitalize on
     user presence, location and availability.

   - Inter-Modal Messaging: Enables service providers to increase SMS and
     MMS traffic and revenue by allowing subscribers to securely send SMS or
     MMS messages from computer email accounts with full authentication and
     billability.

In subsequent phases of the Lucent Hosted Custom Applications Center, Lucent will expand service offerings to include advanced blended lifestyle services, such as multi-player network gaming and location-based advertising.

About Lucent Technologies

Lucent Technologies, headquartered in Murray Hill, N.J., USA, designs and delivers networks for the world's largest communications service providers. Backed by Bell Labs research and development, Lucent relies on its strengths in mobility, optical, data and voice networking technologies as well as software and services to develop next-generation networks. The company's systems, services and software are designed to help customers quickly deploy and better manage their networks and create new, revenue-generating services that help businesses and consumers. For more information on Lucent Technologies, visit its Web site at http://www.lucent.com/.