PARIS, 5 April 2005 — Confirming its commitment to bridge the digital divide and following the signature of the UN Global Compact in 2003, Alcatel has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), whose member countries consist of 13 Arab nations — Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Occupied Palestinian Territories, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE and Yemen — all located in Western Asia.

Alcatel will support three projects, as part of the MOU:

• The “partnership center” in Cairo, Egypt at which Alcatel provides local entrepreneurs with advanced telecommunication technologies, resources and development support for new multimedia services, will be enlarged to include companies based in other ESCWA countries.

• The development of broadband deployment (DSL) within the region by making local ICT services broadly available, regardless of age, address or socioeconomic conditions.

• Pilot projects for commercial users, such as farmers and fishermen, that will enable them to access market information services. These will allow local producers to negotiate their yields under more equitable conditions.

“This agreement with Alcatel is a major contribution to the realization of ESCWA’s regional plan of action for building the information society as part of the process leading to the second phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the first phase of which was held in Geneva in 2003,” said Dr. Omar Bizri, head of the ICT Division of ESCWA. “We expect that this collaboration will materialize into concrete projects highlighting the benefits of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as a development enabler for this region.”

Thierry Albrand, VP, Digital Bridge for Alcatel in France, Africa, Middle East, South Asia, Iran and Turkey, added: “Being a member of the UN working committee, which examines the contribution of ICT to a country’s development, Alcatel is very glad to sign this MOU with ESCWA. We believe that this agreement will pave the way for the implementation of the projects proposed by Alcatel for bridging the digital divide within the Middle East.”

The Digital Bridge Initiative is part of Alcatel’s Sustainable Development strategy. Based on clearly identified local needs, this approach consists of partnering with local players, associations and other stakeholders, to propose solutions that combine, technologies, services and financing.

Alcatel will also be helping to bridge the digital divide through its work to upgrade the Sea-Me-We 3 submarine cable network. Alcatel has been awarded a multimillion-dollar turnkey contract to deploy an integrated submarine and terrestrial optical solution for the 10Gbit/s upgrade of the Sea-Me-We 3 submarine cable network. The upgrade will provide the 38,000-km Sea-Me-We 3 cable network with extra capacity to support the increased traffic loads driven by the rollout of broadband services. With completion scheduled by the end of 2005, the upgraded Sea-Me-We 3 will also benefit from advanced restoration capabilities and will serve as backhaul infrastructure for the Sea-Me-We 4 network.

Alcatel will upgrade submarine sections linking the UK to India via France, Portugal, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Djibouti in Africa and the United Arab Emirates. Alcatel will also upgrade all terrestrial stations along the network. Under the terms of the contract, Alcatel will supply a turnkey, end-to-end solution based on the most advanced submarine and terrestrial optical networking equipment. In the submarine sections, Alcatel will deploy its new-generation DWDM submarine line terminal, the Alcatel 1620 Light Manager, enabling operators to improve their network efficiency by incorporating the most recent developments in optical transmission. At the landing stations, upgrades will include Alcatel’s Optical Multi-Service Nodes, the 1678 Metro Core Connect and DWDM terrestrial systems. Furthermore, Alcatel will upgrade the existing network management system, the 1350 management suite, to integrate monitoring of the new equipment and will be in charge of the installation, testing and commissioning.

The relationship between Alcatel and the Sea-Me-We 3 consortium dates back to 1997. Since then, Alcatel has participated in the deployment, upgrade and maintenance of the Sea-Me-We 3 submarine cable network, achieving in 2003 the deepest plough burial — 2.5 m below the seabed — performed in the North Sea. Furthermore, Alcatel has been selected as the sole supplier of choice for the relevant terrestrial portion.

It was announced yesterday that at the same time that Alcatel is working to upgrade Sea-Me-We 3, the telecom solutions provider will also be deploying a new, turnkey submarine cable network for Orascom Telecom, the largest GSM network operator in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. Scheduled for service in the second half of 2005, the new submarine cable network will connect Marseille in France to Algiers and Annaba in Algeria spanning nearly 1,300-km and further improving the connectivity between Algeria, European and all international networks.

Under the terms of the contract, Alcatel will install its submarine line terminal and Optical Multi-Service Node equipment at the cable network’s landing points. The deployment of this solution will also enable Orascom Telecom to benefit from new bandwidth for backhauling regional mobile traffic. Both the submarine and terrestrial equipment will be managed by Alcatel’s 1350 management suite, which will ensure efficient and cost-optimized monitoring of network operations. Additionally, Alcatel will provide a comprehensive set of services including marine and terrestrial installation, commissioning and integration, as well as training services.