EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Mobile infrastructure vendor Alcatel-Lucent has played down concerns that network sharing by operators will significantly reduce carrier capex over the next few years, a scenario that would potentially put even greater pressure on the troubled company’s future business prospects.

In a new video interview with Mobile World Live, the company’s president of Asia Pacific, Rajeev Singh-Molares, tackles the issue of whether the growing trend for operators to share radio access networks could wipe out billions of dollars of potential network infrastructure rollout business in the coming years.

“I think we need to look at this from a short-term perspective, and then from a medium-term perspective,” says Singh-Molares. “Clearly, network sharing for the vendor community in the short-term may have a negative impact, in as much as it reduces the amount of infrastructure that is deployed. Having said that, if it allows our customers to be more competitive and healthier financially, that is a good thing in the medium to long term.”

Network sharing has seen most action in Europe; recent high-profile deals include an agreement between O2 UK and Vodafone. However, Singh-Molares claims any fears this could become a major global trend are unfounded at present: “I think there’s more noise about network sharing than reality at this stage… there’s more talk than there is reality.”

Elsewhere in the interview Singh-Molares downplays the prospect of any widespread M&A in the network vendor market, outlines the importance of the Asian market to Alcatel-Lucent’s financial recovery, and highlights the benefits of a move to LTE-Advanced technology.

View the full interview here.