Paris, July 3rd, 2002 - Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) announced today the installation of a Technical Assistance Center (TAC) in Brazil for GSM/GPRS mobile networks which will service clients in Latin America. A group of Brazilian engineers ? trained to supply 24-hour technical support to the local mobile operators ? will be based in this TAC. Alcatel has sold its GSM/GPRS technology in Brazil, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Paraguay.
Part of a network of nine Alcatel TACs located around the world, the Brazilian center's activities will include the planning of the radio network as well as its optimization.
According to Carsten Smago, vice president, Mobile networks, Alcatel Latin America: Alcatel has closely followed the technological evolution of mobile networks in Latin America. It has consequently structured itself and created the necessary competence to service the new entrants as well as the existing operators choosing the GSM technology as the evolution path to 3G. As Asia, Latin America is, doubtless, a promising market.
Marc Nieto, general manager of Alcatel?s services activities in Brazil commented: Alcatel is one of the few companies able to execute turnkey projects, with solutions developed specifically for the Brazilian market and now for the Latin American market. Alcatel manages all aspects of the project from site acquisition, civil construction and equipment installation to Operation and Maintenance (O&M) ?.
About Alcatel and GSM in Latin America
In Brazil, Alcatel announced in July 2001, the signature of a contract of US$ 275 million with Oi, Telemar?s mobile operator, to supply a GSM 1800/GPRS turnkey network. The contract forecasts the project?s complete management, including the network planning and implementation, sites acquisition and building, as well as the network's operation and maintenance in the Northern region of Brazil, covering an area of more than 70 cities in the estates of Piaui, Ceara, Maranhao, Para, Amazonas, Amapa and Roraima. In April 2002, Alcatel announced the Operation and Maintenance contract for the Oi network in these seven estates.
In Paraguay, Alcatel installed for Hola Paraguay S.A., a PCS (Personal Communication Services) network turnkey in the capital of the country, Assuncion, and suburbs. Design to service more than 100,000 subscribers, the network includes radio stations, controllers, operation and maintenance, a switching mobile platform based on Alcatel? Evolium NOSR/E10 message. Also, billing systems and customer care, voice mail and short messages service, besides prepaid, equipment for interconnection to the backbone via microwave radios and all the civil related works (towers, shelters, etc.).
Alcatel has also supplied equipment to Personal, mobile division of CTE (Compañía de Telecomunicaciones de El Salvador), a complete GSM 1900 network (central and radio networks) and will continue to support the operator in its aggressive expansion plans. With that contract, Alcatel has entered a new market, substituting an existing D-AMPS network by a GSM 1900. The subscribers? migration from the D-AMPS network to GSM was done without interrupting the service. All the substitution process was transparent for the subscribers who could continue to use their mobile phones.
Most recently, Alcatel announced the signature of a contract for US$ 149 million with ICE (Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad), incumbent telecommunications operator in Costa Rica, supplying a complete GSM 1800/GPRS turnkey network in the whole country. The network will support up to 400,000 lines and will surpass the D-AMPS former network. It will offer advanced mobile packet data services including Internet access m-commerce and data wireless transactions reaching up to 115 Kbps speed approximately twice the speed of the fastest dial up modems. Thanks to Alcatel's end-to-end Evolium solution, ICE may guarantee a natural migration to 3G.
About Alcatel
Alcatel designs, develops and builds innovative and competitive communications networks, enabling carriers, service providers and enterprises to deliver any type of content, such as voice, data and multimedia, to any type of consumer, anywhere in the world. Relying on its leading and comprehensive products and solutions portfolio, stretching from end-to-end optical infrastructures, fixed and mobile networks to broadband access, Alcatel's customers can focus on optimizing their service offerings and revenue streams. With sales of EURO 25 billion in 2001 and 99,000 employees, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries.
For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet: http://www.alcatel.com.
About Alcatel Evolium Solutions
Alcatel is now the world's fastest growing GSM/GPRS supplier. Currently, over 110 mobile operators worldwide rely on Alcatel's Evolium?GSM/GPRS core and radio solutions. By creating Evolium SAS, an Alcatel-Fujitsu company, Alcatel clearly reinforces its position in both mobile infrastructure and mobile Internet. Evolium SAS combines Alcatel's expertise in GSM, GPRS, and EDGE as well as in ATM and IP technologies, with the advanced experience of Fujitsu as supplier of NTT DoCoMo. NTT DoCoMo is the world's leading mobile communications company with more than 40 million customers.
The company provides a wide variety of leading-edge mobile multimedia services. These include i-modeT?, the world's most popular mobile Internet service, which provides e-mail and Internet access to over 32 million subscribers, and FOMA, launched in 2001 as the world's first 3G mobile service based on W-CDMA.
Alcatel's UMTS solutions are a reality today, with 20 UMTS field trials networks in operation or planned to be delivered by Alcatel in Europe and in Asia by mi-2002. Alcatel's strategy covers all aspects of UMTS deployment, from radio access and core network to terminals. Evolium SAS delivers a radio infrastructure that is 3GPP-compliant, field-proven and capitalises on Japanese 3G technical and field experience. Alcatel, which played a vital part in developing the mobile Internet market, in particular through the successful roll out of GPRS commercial networks world-wide, has today a timely UMTS offering.
About Alcatel Services
To meet today's increasing demand for customized turnkey network solutions, Alcatel's services range from business and technology consulting, network design - integrating Alcatel and third party equipment including operation support systems, implementation management up to technical network operation and maintenance services.
Having successfully built Europe's and Latin America's largest optical backbones, deployed and integrated over 10,000 sites for major mobile networks in Europe, Asia and Latin America, and operating major networks world-wide, Alcatel's services expertise serves all telecom carrier segments. Alcatel Services addresses as well the telecom requirements of non-carriers like Utility and Oil & Gas companies.