Alcatel NV and Qualcom Inc, San Diego are to form Alcatel-Qualcomm as a 51%-49% joint venture in Cergy, France: part of Alcatel’s Radiocommunications, Space and Defence Group, the new company is intended to strengthen the partners’ penetration into two-way mobile satellite communications throughout Europe, North Africa and the Middle East, primarily by making and marketing Qualcomm’s Omnitracs System, which enables truck drivers and their despatchers to communicate with each other at low cost, however far apart they are.
