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Technology Stocks : Ascend Communications (ASND) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lucinos who wrote (61415)	7/30/1999 10:57:00 AM
From: Mighty Mizzou	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 61433

MANAMA (Reuters) - Ascend International Inc, a subsidiary of Lucent Technologies of the United States, has been awarded a contract to install new ports for Saudi Arabia's Internet service phase II expansion, industry sources said Thursday. ''Ascend has been awarded a contract to install the new ports,'' an industry official told Reuters by telephone from the Saudi capital Riyadh. No details were available on the cost of the project or when the deal was awarded. Saudi Arabia currently has 5,000 Internet ports and the planned expansion is to double the number of ports to 10,000. The Saudi Telecommunications Company (STC), in a circular obtained by Reuters, said it was in the process of activating Internet phase II equipment to help speed up the service. ''We expect phase II to be completed by the end of September, 1999... When phase II is completed, STC will have expanded the Internet dial-up access service area to include most of the kingdom,'' the circular said. STC, set up in 1998 with an initial paid-in capital of 10 billion riyals ($2.6 billion) as part of the kingdom's privatization drive, said it would increase the modem allocation for Internet service providers (ISPs) when the project was complete. ''Each ISP will be allocated an additional 200 new modems across the kingdom. These modems will be 'globally available'. This means that these modems are available at all of the Internet locations in the kingdom,'' it said. There are currently 26 ISPs operating out of an original 40 licensed to provide Internet services -- the kingdom withdrew the licenses of 11 earlier this year for failing to provide services on time. Saudi Arabia began to provide cheap Internet services to its 18 million inhabitants early in 1999 through the King Abdul-Aziz City for Science and Technology (KACST) -- the body charged with supervising the net. Referring to a planned phase III, STC said it was in the process of ''installing additional equipment to further expand Internet services throughout the kingdom, increase the number of ports and expand international connections.'' It gave no further details.