ECI Telecom of Petah Tikva, Israel, a provider of telecommunications solutions to carriers and service providers worldwide, announced the appointment of Niel Ransom to its board of directors. From 1997-2005, Ransom filled senior and general management positions at Alcatel, most recently as worldwide chief technology officer and executive committee member. He has also managed the company's access and metro optical business in the US. Prior to Alcatel, Ransom served as senior director for the Advanced Technology Systems Engineering Center of BellSouth; he started his career at Bell Labs. Ransom currently serves on the board of Teknovus, a semiconductor provider of Ethernet passive optical network (EPON) solutions; and Overture Networks, a developer of converged packet access platforms.