US Government Doing Business With French Company Alcatel

Company Web Site ^ | 3/28/03 | Misterrob

[misterrob]

I have discovered that the US government and some state and local governments are doing business with Alcatel, a french telecommunications company. These deals seem to be done through government contractors. Go visit their site at www.alcatel.com and search around for terms like government and Navy and see the press releases....

Then....

Call your congressmen/congresswoman and scream bloody murder that US tax dollars are going to French companies when they could just as easily go to a US company. Ask them to explain why ANYTHING Naval is being allowed to go to a French company when American soldiers are fighting overseas without any French support.

This is important so please act on this!!!!!

[misterrob]

This is important so please act on this!!!!!

[ladtx]

They are probably legally binding contracts. Not much can be done about that. Any new contracts, however, is a different story.

[templar]

Maybe the American telecommunications industry just doesn't have the capacity to fulfill all of our requirements.

[We Happy Few]

There is massive overcapacity among U.S. telecom companies.

[glock rocks]

Welcome to Free Republic.

[misterrob]

They could work with Cisco or they could work with Lucent both of whom are American companies......

[mgist]

Does anyone have one of those readily available contact lists?

[.45MAN]

Actually you are right! ALcatel is one the the largest producers of communications satelites in the world..And there are many companies in this country that furnish parts for these satelites both government and commercial. It would be great if we could just stop the flow to come of thee companies but there are thousand's of trails leading to each one of them..

[stimpyone]

The Navy had bought a lot of gear from a U.S. company called Xylan, which was bought by Alcatel.

There are a lot of Alcatel offices and employees in the U.S. It doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense to spend tens of millions to replace Alcatel gear, and punish those in the U.S. who are trying to earn a living in the name of some silly boycott.

[Illbay]

This illustrates the problem with "not doing business with XXXX companies."

Alcatel may be "French," but it is actually multinational.

For example, there is an Alcatel factory where they assemble Cable and DSL modems in Tyler, Texas. I'm sure there are Alcatel facilities all over the U.S., and in other countries.

I think people need to be circumspect about this kind of thing.

A more direct way to show our displeasure with France is not to buy French IMPORTS, such as foods and wines, and--more than any other single thing--NOT to travel to France.

Their food exports to the U.S., and tourism, are the two most critical aspects of our trade with them.

[dagar]

The reason the military is "doing business" with Alcatel is because back in 1999, Alcatel bought Xylan (the also bought Packet Engines then.) Xylan gear constitutes the Navy LANs. In fact, Alcatel had to create an "American division" headquartered in Calabasas, CA to keep the contracts that Xylan had. Calabasas is the old Xylan headquarters. Anybody that has worked a lot with Xylan (like me) knows this.

[templar]

They could work with Cisco or they could work with Lucent ...

I thought those guys were shutting things down, not expanding.