Qualcomm Inc (QCOM)

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African Flagship 3G Network For Tunisia

29th June , 2004

Europe : Tunisia is to install the most advanced mobile telecommunications network in Africa. Two of its key cities – Tunis and Sousse – are to receive WCDMA equipment from ZTE in a contract that will see 3G technology in commercial applications in the second half of 2005. The contract, with Tunisia’s PTT CERT, demonstrates that ZTE has become one of a few vendors anywhere in the world totally equipped to help operators build their 3G networks. It also marks ZTE’s first 3G network win outside of China.

Tunis is to be the host of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in 2005. It is expected that by this time over 20,000 delegates from 190 countries will use ZTE’s WCDMA equipment to enjoy 3G services such as streaming media, video telephony, high-speed internet access, MMS, VOD, JAVA and WAP.

Sousse is Tunisia’s most famous tourist resort, attracting millions of European visitors every year with its sunshine and seashore. With the new 3G network, visitors from Europe will also be able to use world-class 3G services.

For the project, ZTE will not only provide its 3GPP R4-based end-to-end WCDMA network, but also its most advanced wireless R&D – WCDMA+ Wi-Fi. This development has shown that ZTE has the capability to provide WCDMA solutions that can integrate different kinds of networks.

Helping operators to construct a revenue-generating network is the primary objective of ZTE’s customer service programme. In this project, ZTE fully considered the future development of the whole network by using the existing network to achieve wider coverage in Sousse, Monastir, and Mahdia, without adding any infrastructure cost to the operator.

At the signing ceremony, Ye Weiming, VP, ZTE Corporation, said “ZTE has the confidence to help Tunis construct a stable WCDMA network and provide good-quality 3G services to the WSIS 2005. In the future, ZTE will continue to help Tunis establish its leading position in the African telecom industry.”

Earlier this year ZTE was the sole provider of ADSL and Wi-Fi to a preview meeting in Tunisia for the WSIS 2005. Habib Ammar, Chairman, WSIS, said, “ZTE has offered high-quality ADSL and Wi-fi services. We have enough reason to believe that ZTE WCDMA is able to provide reliable 3G services to the WSIS 2005.“

“We have a full understanding of ZTE, which helps us to establish our confidence in their capability in the research and applications of new technologies. In addition, we appreciate very much the job done by ZTE’s outstanding team in Tunis,” said a spokesperson for PTT CERT, Tunisia.

In the past few years, ZTE has established a leading position in North Africa’s telecom markets. In 2003, ZTE was selected to build Africa’s largest CDMA WLL project in Algeria. ZTE’s GSM products have won large-scale applications in Nigeria and Ethiopia. Earlier in 2004, ZTE was selected by Egypt Telecom to construct a large-scale CDMA network covering the Nile River Delta.

The WCDMA contract with Tunis has laid a base for ZTE’s further entry into 3G markets in North Africa as well as Europe.

http://www.3g.co.uk/PR/June2004/7979.htm