The program, called ng Connect, was founded by Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU) around 18 months ago and now includes 47 member companies, triple its original membership.
ng Connect bills itself as a telecom industry consortium working towards Long Term Evolution and other high-bandwidth technologies.
“In addition to the showcase demos that the program members have delivered, our membership sees tremendous opportunities for program expansion into high growth areas such as telematics, retail and media where smart, high capacity networks will drive a new era of innovation," stated Steve West, vice-president of emerging technology and media at Alcatel-Lucent.
LTE is expected to launch in several North American markets this year, positioning the companies well to succeed in the coming months, according to ng Connect.
The new ng Connect Program members include Atrato, Inc., BlogRadio, Intelligent Mechatronic Systems Inc., IVOX, Netsweeper, Inc., Nuance Communications, Skymeter Corporation, STRATACACHE, Telepresence Tech, VisionMAX and Wcities.com.
