16th March , 2004

ASIA : Alcatel and DoCoMo Engineering announced that they jointly host the "3G Indoor Coverage Forum" in Tokyo, Japan, on March 9th to 10th, 2004. This Forum gathers 24 international mobile operators from 18 countries.

In the context of the current UMTS uptake, the main purpose of this Forum was to support 3G operators so that they can accurately address the right challenges (investments, traffic and revenue boost) of the 3G indoor coverage. Such enhancement is indeed essential as new services introduced by 3G, like visio-conference, will require high capacity and excellent end-user Quality of Service in indoor areas such as high-rise buildings, underground and shopping centers.

On one hand, DoCoMo Engineering Inc. is demonstrating to the international operators participating in the Forum, the reality of NTT DoCoMo's FOMA®, the world's first commercial 3G mobile communications service based on W-CDMA technology. During an operational tour in downtown Tokyo, each operator could experience key 3G FOMA® applications, including i-mode®, a high speed packet transmission service at speeds of up to 384 kbps, in
different indoor conditions. This illustrated some of the DoCoMo Engineering's technological advances and patterns applications.

On the other hand, leveraging its international reach and its deep knowledge of European and Asian mobile operators' deployment needs, Alcatel is proposing a process to adapt and integrate DoCoMo Engineering's know-how into 3G worldwide indoor implementations. This comes on top of Alcatel's well-established GSM experience, of its current partners' portfolio management, like RFS and LGC Wireless, and of its turnkey project capabilities for cost-effective configurations deployments.

Masami Yamamoto, President of DoCoMo Engineering Inc. said, "NTT DoCoMo has been building up relationships with worldwide operators in order to promote FOMA®, the world's first commercial 3G mobile communication service based on W-CDMA technology. DoCoMo Engineering contributes to such promotion of W-CDMA by supporting vendors around the globe, especially for indoor engineering." He added, "We consider that the global market now needs to be more seamless and wireless. This is why Alcatel and DoCoMo Engineering jointly hosted the 3G Indoor Coverage Forum in Tokyo as an activity for 3G indoor promotion. We expect Alcatel's global marketing know-how and experience and our 3G indoor field experience will contribute to the success of tomorrow's 3G global market."

Paolo Semenzato, director of mobile radio access systems, technology and engineering of TIM, the leading mobile operator in Italy, stated, "Even if European countries usually focus much more on outdoor coverage, the continually expanding and international business centers, shopping malls and train stations in Europe will require top level indoor service conditions from the very beginning." He added, "As such, the cooperation on 3G indoor coverage which was demonstrated during this Forum between Alcatel and the DoCoMo Group in Japan is of prime importance for 3G services implementation in Europe."

Cliff Woo, deputy managing director & wireless networks director of
Hutchison 3G Hong Kong, Ltd., stated, "Operating cellular networks in the highly dense metropolitan area of Hong Kong, we at Hutchison have been working in the past years for the provisioning of superb indoor coverage for both 2G and 3G." He added, "The combination of Alcatel's and DoCoMo's 3G indoor coverage skills and know-how shown during this Forum will surely help us to get the best compromise between technical constraints and economical advantage, which will result in a key differentiating position."

Marc Rouanne, chief operating officer of Alcatel's mobile communications activities said, "The 3G indoor engineering concept is a key initial step of Alcatel's larger vision for end-user indoor behavior. Our customers now expect intercontinental seamless, wireless, and broadband services. As such, this partnership between Alcatel and the DoCoMo Group, focusing on today's and tomorrow's fixed and mobile telecom visions, consolidates the transfer of experience which, for months, Alcatel has been promoting between Japan and the rest of the world."

FOMA and i-mode are registered trademarks of NTT DoCoMo, Inc. in Japan and other countries

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