Brian Riggs, an analyst at Current Analysis Inc. in Sterling, Va., said the UPMC project gives Paris-based Alcatel a big foothold in the U.S., where it has struggled to win customers for many years.

"The UPMC told me they didn't want to deal with multiple vendors," Riggs said. "But to have an organization that's ripping out Cisco and replacing it with Alcatel is a big deal. It's a lot of trust in Alcatel."

The UPMC has already installed several thousand wireless access points, and that amount is expected to grow to about 30,000 as part of the convergence project.