July 15

Alcatel-Lucent has been awarded a Euro 32 million euro contract by Bulgarian Telecommunications Company (BTC), the main telecommunication services operator in Bulgaria - to provide GSM/EDGE solutions to Vivatel, BTC's GSM mobile subsidiary.

Alcatel-Lucent will replace half of Vivatel's current GSM Base Station Subsystem network equipment and will also provide a full range of services in conjunction with this contract including project management, network design, integration, testing, installation, and multi-vendor radio network planning and optimization. The contract runs through 2011.

This new project underlines Alcatel-Lucent's strong presence in South-East Europe in the mobile segment, as well as its ability to provide competitive solutions while ensuring a high quality of support services locally.

Under the terms of the contract, Alcatel-Lucent will design, deploy and maintain its industry-leading multi-standard radio access solution including its latest Base Station Controller platform (BSC Evolution) and fully flexible TWIN transceiver.

"We are confident that relying on Alcatel-Lucent's extensive experience in providing turnkey integrated and cost-effective mobile network solutions will enable us to meet the growing demand for mobile services in Bulgaria," said Bernard Moscheni, CEO of Vivatel. "In addition to their state of the art GSM/EDGE+ solutions, their local services capabilities are the most extensive that we have found and this played a key role in our decision."

Alcatel-Lucent's radio access solution is cost-efficient because it can accommodate multiple standards, such as GSM/GPRS/EDGE+ and 3G, using the same radio equipment. Furthermore, service providers can increase the capacity of their platform as demand warrants by introducing EDGE +, HSDPA and HSUPA on the same platform through a simple software upgrade. Alcatel-Lucent's experience in design, integration, testing and project management skills also play a key role in ensuring Bulgarian Telecommunication Company/Vivatel continues to enhance its customers' experience.

Alcatel-Lucent provides effective GSM/EDGE+ solutions for the renovation of GSM networks designed to help operators such as BTC dramatically reduce the total cost of ownership for the network - taking into account such critical factors as site acquisition and leasing costs, civil engineering requirements, as well as power consumption, transmission, and operating and maintenance costs.

"This agreement is further evidence of our leadership in the delivery of the latest generation of GSM/EDGE+ radio solutions, and further strengthens our long relation with BTC," said Frederic Rose, President of Alcatel-Lucent's activities in Europe, Asia and Africa. "With our strong local presence, project management skills and our state of the art wireless technology, we are confident that we will be able to meet BTC's expectations in providing a first-class network."