Partnership to Accelerate 3G HSDPA Service Launch

US : Alcatel and Novatel Wireless announced that both companies have completed thorough interoperability tests between Alcatel Evolium(TM) radio access infrastructure and the Novatel Wireless' Merlin U740(TM) Wireless PC Card Modem in order to enable mobile operators worldwide to undertake live HSDPA (High-Speed Downlink Packet Access) field introductions.

Inset is Marc Rouanne, COO of Alcatel's Mobile Communications Group who is quoted below.

These introductions will leverage the HSDPA interoperability tests already carried out by Alcatel and QUALCOMM, between Alcatel's Evolium(TM) radio access infrastructure and QUALCOMM's Mobile Station Modem(TM) (MSM(TM)) MSM6275(TM) chipset. Furthermore, this chipset was integrated by Novatel Wireless to expand its portfolio of multi-standard Merlin(TM) Wireless PC Card Modems to HSDPA.

An example of this powerful association is both companies' support of tele.ring's HSDPA field introduction, which will be taking place in Austria during the second half of 2005.

"Our association with Novatel Wireless will enable Alcatel to provide 3G operators with a fully-interoperable, end-to-end HSDPA solution allowing them to offer, primarily to their corporate subscribers, new PC-based data- intensive services," said Marc Rouanne, chief operating officer of Alcatel's mobile communications activities. "The flexibility of Alcatel's HSDPA solution, implying a software-only upgrade, will help us accelerate the availability of HSDPA for 3G subscribers worldwide."

"Novatel Wireless has always been at the forefront of the best Wireless WAN broadband technology and access solutions for the mobile industry," said Peter Leparulo, chief executive officer of Novatel Wireless. "We are proud to have been selected by tele.ring for their HSDPA introduction, and are confident that our agreement with Alcatel will benefit both companies' HSDPA business opportunities worldwide."

"tele.ring is relying on Alcatel and on Novatel Wireless for the success of our HSDPA introduction in Austria," declared Elmar Grasser, chief technology officer of tele.ring.

Based on Alcatel's Evolium(TM) end-to-end multi-standard solution, the deployment of Alcatel's HSDPA solution will require a simple software-only upgrade, as all Alcatel's Node Bs already used by 3G/UMTS operators' networks worldwide are fully HSDPA-ready.

About HSDPA

The HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) standard marks a similar leap forward for WCDMA and UMTS as EDGE does for GSM in terms of data transmission speed and capacity, essential for 3G evolution. Current field- proven 3G downlink speeds of about 384 kbps (up to 2 Mbps possible according to standards) will be boosted to 14Mbps (maximum value according to standards) with the first-generation HSDPA systems, enabling operators to support a considerably larger number of high data-rate users on a single radio carrier and ensure data-hungry subscribers get the best experience with innovative and existing multimedia services.