Lucent Wins $1-Billion US West Contract

Lucent Technologies Inc. beat out rival Northern Telecom Ltd. for a multiyear contract to provide as much as $1 billion of wireless-network equipment to US West Communications Group. Lucent also won two contracts valued at a combined $178 million to supply wireless equipment to Frontier Corp. and Korean-firm Hansol PCS. The agreements are the latest for Lucent since its split from AT&T; Corp. last year. Under the US West contract, Lucent initially will provide $500 million of PCS equipment over three to five years. Lucent will provide networking hardware, switches, antennas and software for the PCS network that will be built throughout US West’s 14-state region. Lucent later could provide as much as another $500 million in such equipment. Lucent shares rose 87.5 cents to close at $59 on the NYSE.