Alcatel announced two weeks ago it has reached a preliminary agreement to acquire Nortel's UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications) radio access business for US$320 million, including existing Nortel customer contracts.

UMTS is a 3G telecom standard used in Europe based on W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access).

Herves Pourcines, president and country senior officer of Alcatel Philippines Inc., believes the acquisition will not have an impact on Nortel's business in the Philippines.

'There is no 3G-related manpower in the Philippines so I don't think this will have an impact on the local Nortel operations,' the Alcatel official said.

By acquiring Nortel's UMTS business, Alcatel is looking to strengthen its product and services portfolio and leverage on customers it acquired, among them major operators such as Orange PLC and Vodafone PLC.