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Huawei to Commission the First African UMTS Commercial Network

15th November , 2004

US : October 16, 2004 will be recognized as a memorable day in African telecom history because it was the day that the first call was connected via the first African UMTS commercial network of EMTEL in Mauritius due to Huawei Technologies from China. To celebrate, EMTEL and Huawei held a joint ceremony with Yang Zhangsheng, counselor from the Chinese embassy to Mauritius in attendance.

Huawei won the first African 3G commercial contract over the fierce competition from other world famous telecom equipment suppliers. Huawei provided EMTEL with an end-to-end UMTS solution including UMTS BTS system, core network together with 3G mobile intelligent network, 3G mobile data service platform and UMTS terminals. People from all over the world will enjoy the highest level of 3G service in Mauritius, including video phone, video conference, multimedia short message, WAP(Wireless Application Protocol), LBS(Location Based Service), streaming download, and multimedia RBT(Ring Back Tone).
In the ceremony Mr. Bashir A. Currimjee, chairman of the EMTEL board, said, "Huawei delivers cutting-edge technology, reliable equipment and has the reputation for efficient project management and service response capabilities, which make us confident of the cooperation with Huawei. EMTEL has constructed the first UMTS commercial network in Africa, and we will provide world-class 3G service soon."

Mauritius, a world-famous tourist destination located in East Africa, ranks as one of "the world's most competitive 59 countries" by the World Economy Forum. Called "the island of sunshine" and "the island of Paradise", Mauritius attracts more than 700, 000 tourists from all over the world each year and it also recognized as a duty-free port of Africa that attracts significant international business. To accommodate high-level requirements such as service and overall quality of the mobile network driven by the high visiting traffic and data access volume, EMTEL's mission is to construct a 3G network to provide world-class service for its users.

Chen Zhaohui, Executive Vice President of Huawei said, "We are pleased that EMTEL selected Huawei to build the UMTS network. Huawei is quickly growing its wireless business and is one of the few equipment suppliers to provide commercial UMTS end-to-end solution worldwide. Huawei UMTS equipment has excellent compatibility, switching and roaming with GSM equipment from different vendors without any modification of the existing GSM equipment which has been proven in UAE, Hong Kong and Mauritius. At the same time, it also showed that the UMTS network has no necessary connection with the GSM network, therefore operators have the choice to select better equipment suppliers."

This is the third UMTS commercial network constructed by Huawei, following those for Etisalat in UAE and SUNDAY in Hong Kong. These three networks are the only three UMTS commercial networks in the world constructed by one Chinese equipment supplier.

Tao Jingwen, President of Huawei Regional South Africa, said "The UMTS network is a very complicated system and this is the first cooperation between Huawei and EMTEL. We appreciate EMTEL's trust in Huawei. Huawei is confident of providing EMTEL with a UMTS network of high quality and abundant services. And we are looking forward to a much closer strategic cooperation with EMTEL."

By the end of the first half of 2004, Huawei Wireless has already provided mobile telecom solutions and product services for 140 operators in more than 40 countries around the world, with a total number of subscribers topping 62 million. GSM products have applied 200 thousand frequencies totally around the world, over 10 million subscribers on the GPRS networks. In the UMTS field, Huawei has succeeded in commercialization in UAE, Hong Kong and Mauritius, and has become one of the few equipment suppliers that can provide commercial end-to-end solution due to in-depth understanding in wireless technology and world-leading R4 SoftSwitch technology.

At present, the most advanced UMTS technology ready for commercialization is the SoftSwitch-based R4 version. China Mobile adopted Huawei SoftSwitch equipment and constructed the world largest TMSC, with more than 30 thousand E1s throughout the network. To cover different terrains Huawei provides suitable series Base Transceiver Stations. In Hong Kong, one of the world's most complicated radio coverage environments, Huawei adopted a series Base Transceiver Stations to satisfy the coverage requirements. To date, Huawei mobile SoftSwitch equipment has applied more than 55,000 E1s at gateway exchanges and tandem exchanges, with more than 3 million subscribers at local exchanges and over 6000 radio frequencies applied around the world.

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