3G UMTS Services Launch in Southern Korea Planned for November 2005

ASIA : SK Telecom, Korea's largest mobile communications provider, has selected LG Electronics (LGE) and Nortel to provide technology to support new high-speed wireless broadband services throughout southern Korea.

Inset is Peter MacKinnon, president, GSM/UMTS, Nortel quoted below.

Advanced HSDPA technology from Nortel and UMTS core network solutions from LGE will assist SK Telecom in delivering feature-rich services like interactive games, music downloads, DVD-quality videos, real-time multimedia collaboration and e-mail with large file transfers at speeds up to 14.4 Mbps. This is comparable to current wired broadband connections and would, for example, allow users to download music and e-mail attachments in seconds rather than minutes.

SK Telecom's commercial launch of UMTS services in Pusan, Korea's second largest city, and the southern provinces of Gyeongsang-do, Jeolla-do and Jeju Island is planned for November 2005, with commercial launch of HSDPA following in early 2006.

"HSDPA wireless broadband services will transform communications in Korea," said Myung Sung Lee, executive vice president and head of SK Telecom's Technology Strategic Group. "This LGE and Nortel solution will allow our subscribers to enjoy next generation services at unprecedented speeds, as well as position us to rapidly develop new and competitive services to meet Korea's increasingly sophisticated mobile communication requirements."

"The SK Telecom win is another important milestone for the LGE-Nortel joint venture, which will supply networks covering all cities and regions of the Korean peninsula," said Peter MacKinnon, president, GSM/UMTS, Nortel. "The contract continues Nortel's leadership in supplying UMTS/HSDPA technology to Korea, which has the highest broadband penetration and one of the most sophisticated telecommunications markets in the world."

Nortel's HSDPA technology can help significantly reduce operating costs, enable high quality communications through more efficient use of its existing network, increase capacity by handling more data traffic, and support additional users per cell site.

Nortel achieved the industry's first HSDPA mobile call in January 2005. Nortel and LGE completed the first live test calls using a commercial handset solution for HSDPA in March 2005. In June 2005, Nortel became the first wireless network supplier to complete the TL9000 registration standard for Quality Management System Requirements and Measurements across its HSDPA, UMTS and GSM wireless infrastructure solutions.

Nortel has worked with a number of wireless operators on HSDPA trials and deployments in 2005, including KTF in Korea, SOFTBANK Group's BB Mobile, mmO2, Orange (at 3GSM World Congress 2005 in Cannes, France), Vodafone (at CeBIT 2005 in Hanover, Germany), Partner Communications in Israel, and mobilkom austria.

Nortel has designed, installed and launched more than 300 wireless networks in over 70 countries. Nortel was the industry's first supplier with wireless networks operating in all advanced radio technologies, and is the only end-to-end provider of all next generation wireless solutions, as well as edge and core network solutions for IP, ATM and optical transport.

LGE and Nortel executed a joint venture agreement on August 17, 2005 to establish a joint venture company in the area of telecommunication infrastructure businesses. The joint venture company is scheduled to be established within this year, subject to fulfillment of certain conditions provided in the agreement.