Telecoms equipment giant Lucent, suffering acutely from the prolonged downturn in technology spending, has posted its 10th straight quarter-year of losses.

Just two weeks after announcing the culling of 10,000 more jobs, the firm said it had lost $2.9bn (�1.9bn) in the three months to end-September, a respectable result in comparison with the $8.8bn it lost a year earlier.

Despite the improvement, the loss was considerably worse than analysts had expected, mainly thanks to an unexpectedly severe slowing in revenue.

Lucent's sales during the three months were just $2.3bn, less than half what it brought in during the same period of 2001.

Tough times

Undaunted, the firm reiterated its promise to get back into the black by next September.

Lucent said that by then quarterly revenues could have recovered to $2.5bn, and losses dried up entirely - mainly thanks to sweeping cost cuts.

But the firm also forecast that quarterly revenue would plunge as low as $2bn before then.

Lucent's fortunes have waned in line with those of the telecoms companies that are its clients.

Over the past couple of years, previously free-spending telecoms operators have postponed or cancelled investment in new technology.

Last month, Lucent's share price fell below $1 as investors took the view that the long-awaited telecoms sector recovery was still some way off.