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Technology Stocks : Alcatel (ALA) and France -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: buckhead26 who wrote (1104)	1/6/2000 12:40:00 PM
From: Imran	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3891

Hi guys. Been lurking for a long time. Still long (very) on ALA. I found this interesting article on the website. alcatel.com ------------------------------------------------------- FIRST GPRS NETWORK TO BE DEPLOYED IN AFRICA - VODACOM SELECTS ALCATEL FOR AN END-TO-END GPRS SOLUTION Paris, 4 January 2000 - Alcatel and South Africa's Vodacom will jointly evaluate the Alcatel GPRSû solution. This GPRS network, the first to be deployed in Africa, will be installed in Johannesburg during the first quarter of 2000. Vodacom is South Africa's largest GSM operator, with more than 2 million subscribers. Its shareholders are Telkom (50%), Vodafone (31,5%) and Van Rijn Investment Corporation (13,5%). Alcatel has been supplying GSM network infrastructure to Vodacom since 1993. The end-to-end GPRS solution comprises all the necessary infrastructure elements for the radio, switching and routing functions, as well as the terminals and the dedicated software releases. The objective of this live network is to enable Vodacom to fully experiment GPRS, data and IP services in real-network conditions, including testing customer acceptance and determining traffic profiles. The implementation of GPRS will also allow the creation of a new range of revenue-generating Internet-based services and applications such as mobile office, Internet and Intranet access, E-commerce and telemetry. Pierre Tournassoud, Vice President of Alcatel mobile switching activities, said "GPRS is a key enabler for the development of new and enhanced services in a mobile environment. Our strategic relationship with Vodacom will allow their subscribers to access data and Internet services anytime, anywhere. This trial underlines Alcatel's capability to provide a true end-to-end GPRS solution." Alcatel is a leading supplier of GSM mobile networks in Africa with references in Egypt, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Libya, La R‚union, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Togo and Tunisia and has installed 8 new networks this year. (1)General Packet Radio Service Note to Editors GPRS provides an end-to-end packet-switched mobile Internet service at a user rate of up to 115-kbit/s, i.e. 10 times the rate currently offered by GSM networks. Alcatel's GPRS solution - designed to operate in a multi-vendor environment - can be implemented in any GSM network. The Alcatel 1000 GPRS comprises two main elements, the SGSN (Serving GPRS Support Node) which managed mobility, encryption, data compression and charging, and the GGSN (Gateway GPRS Support Node) which provides interaction with the external packet data networks. To enable smooth deployment of GPRS, Alcatel has designed a flexible, scalable, and cost-effective solution. Alcatel's EVOLIUM? Radio Solutions for GSM networks have fully compatible hardware to smoothly introduce GPRS services through a simple software upgrade without any site visit. GPRS-specific network elements will be located at each mobile switching site, while new mobile handsets will be necessary to benefit from the advanced services. About Alcatel Alcatel builds next generation networks, delivering integrated end-to-end voice and data communications solutions to established and new carriers, as well as enterprises and consumers worldwide. With 120,000 employees and sales of EURO 21.3 billion ($25.0 billion), Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. Contacts press@www.alcatel.com