AT&T was broken into regional divisions referred to as Baby Bells to serve local telephone service needs. AT&T itself was broken off into a major long-distance provider, and for the first time had real competition from other long distance providers. And the technological arm of AT&T was later broken into Bell Laboratories and Lucent Technologies.

Today, Lucent stock prices tend to reflect the importance of new telecommunications technologies – in other words, they are growing more important than ever before. Lucent makes and markets telephones, network switching equipment, computer chips, and other telecommunications hardware, and does an enormous service to the world as well as its stockholders with continual investigation of ways to improve and create emerging new technologies. Lucent is one of the biggest holders of telecommunications patents.

If you’re interested in investing in Lucent stock, price the market out carefully. Lucent is one of the best, but it’s not the only telecommunications stock available. It’s more expensive and less likely to move up quickly in value than many telecommunications stocks, but it’s also very unlikely indeed to drop in value. Lucent stock is a great choice for anchoring your tech stock portfolio.

For better Lucent stock prices, look for times when other tech companies make major advances. IBM competes with many of Lucent’s products. But look for Lucent stock prices to be affected by sometimes-surprising influences. For example, Lucent makes telecommunications and advanced computing products, but they also have been investigating the use of lasers and laser pulsing in all kinds of applications, including medical ones. Some advances in medical technology may push up the price of Lucent stock.

Your best bet for investing wisely in Lucent stock is to get a complete handle on what they actually make and what those things mean. But because many of their technologies are on the cutting edge, it’s sometimes difficult to understand their applied value at first. Be prepared to spend serious time learning Lucent products. But you should also be aware that in the long run, the knowledge will be worth it to your portfolio.