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Technology Stocks : The New Qualcomm - a S&P500 company -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Caxton Rhodes who wrote (1189)	9/1/1999 11:00:00 AM
From: Sawtooth	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 13582

More Ericy CDMA action - Brazil (go Ericy!): Wednesday September 1, 8:05 am Eastern Time Company Press Release VeloCom Consortium Awards Ericsson $200 Million Contract to Build Brazilian Telephone Network DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 1, 1999--VeloCom Inc. (formerly WLL International Inc.), a rapidly growing international telecommunications company, announced today that its consortium in Brazil, Canbra Telefonica, has awarded a five-year contract worth an estimated $200 million to Ericsson Inc.(NASDAQ: ERICY - news) to supply it with wireless telephony products in Brazil. Ericsson will supply 1.6 GHz CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) infrastructure equipment to Canbra for its new telephone systems serving customers in Rio de Janeiro and 15 other states in northern Brazil. The planned network will be the largest Wireless Local Loop deployment in Latin America. ''We are pleased to be working with Ericsson, one of the most respected wireless technology providers in the world,'' said David Leonard, president of VeloCom. ''Ericsson's leading-edge fixed wireless and CDMA technology will enable us to offer customers an unequalled level of quality in our telephone systems.'' Ericsson will manufacture and supply base station equipment and cell site materials to Canbra. Delivery and installation of the equipment will begin immediately. Canbra will deploy telephone service in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Bahia by the end of this year, followed by deployment in the 13 other states in Canbra's region. Denver-based VeloCom is quickly becoming a dominant provider of competitive voice, data and Internet services in key markets in Latin America. The company's strategy is to build CLECs (Competitive Local Exchange Carriers) using primarily wireless technology in newly liberalized and under-served Latin American telecommunications markets. To accomplish this, VeloCom, together with its partners Bell Canada International and Qualcomm, Inc., formed two telecommunications companies in Brazil: Canbra and Megatel do Brasil. They have secured ''mirror'' licenses in Brazil under which they can provide fixed telephony service to approximately 75 percent of Brazil's 160 million inhabitants, including Latin America's second- and fourth-largest cities, Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. About VeloCom Inc. VeloCom, headquartered in Denver, was formed in June 1998 under the name WLL International Inc. with the goal of becoming the largest competitive telecommunications provider in Latin America. Fred Vierra, chairman; David Leonard, president; and Nick Kauser, acting chief technical officer, lead VeloCom. Vierra previously served as chief executive officer of Tele-Communications International, Inc. Leonard was formerly president and chief executive officer of UIH Latin America. Kauser served as executive vice president and chief technical officer at AT&T Wireless Services Inc. Privately held, the current equity sponsors of VeloCom include Denver's Telecom Partners and Centennial Funds, as well as California-based Crescendo Ventures. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contact: VeloCom Barry Rowan, 303/874-1142 rowan@velocom.com or Metzger Associates Joseph Pate, 303/786-7000 joe@metzger.com