Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE) presented its quarterly results to analysts today. We have been eagerly waiting to check in to see how the company’s new in-house developed enterprise-class WLAN access points had performed in 1Q17. What we learned was interesting – the company’s WLAN revenues grew almost 10% Y/Y, driven by the introduction of the OmniAccess 1101. In fact, according to our math, the new product contributed to over 100% of the quarter’s Y/Y growth.
The 1101 is a 2×2 802.11ac AP that is focused on “medium density and small business” environments. This product differs from much of the other WLAN products in the ALE portfolio, which are produced by HPE Aruba. The HPE Aruba relationship with Alcatel goes many years back, over a decade, and ALE has long been the top customer of Aruba (and now HPE Aruba) WLAN products.
We expect the company could expand its WLAN product further in the coming months, so we are monitoring the progress.