France-based communications giant Alcatel-Lucent has announced that its Bell Labs research organization has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Korean ministry of knowledge economy's research agency, Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI).

The MoU has set up a basis for the two parties to collaborate on research and development into communications, in particular on advanced optical communications, wireless technologies, including mathematical and computer sciences as well physics.

ETRI's president Dr. Mun-Kee Choi and Bell Labs president Dr. Jeong Kim finalized the signing in Washington D.C. attended by Korean minister of knowledge economy Lee Youn Ho and U.S. deputy secretary of commerce John J. Sullivan.

Bell Labs president Kim said that the Korean ministry is engaged in supporting the development of a national innovation culture and the collaboration should generate new communications technologies.

ETRI president Choi concluded, "With this agreement we hope to combine Bell Labs' fundamental research expertise with ETRI's capabilities in developing applications and technologies. The combination of these two institutions should make it possible to innovate a state-of-the-art IT and communications infrastructure in Korea."