Agere sells gear to TyCom

Agere Systems will provide equipment to help TyCom run its undersea communications network over the next 12 months in a three-year deal valued at $70 million. Allentown, Penn.-based Agere will sell pump lasers to TyCom. The lasers will help amplify high-speed light signals sent along fiber-optic glass wires that are placed underwater and carry voice and data information between continents. Agere makes components and chips for communications gear. TyCom is in the first phase of building its worldwide network that will connect more than 30 cities around the world. TyCom expects this phase will last no longer than the third quarter of 2002. Manufacturing conglomerate Tyco International owns about 86 percent of TyCom. Lucent Technologies spun off Agere in an IPO last March and plans to distribute the remaining shares it owns of the company to its shareholders by October.