Paris, July 4, 2006 — Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) announced today that it has signed a contract with Maroc Telecom, the leading telecommunication operator in Morocco, for a submarine cable network linking Morocco and France. Based on Alcatel's market-leading optical solutions, the project, named Atlas Offshore and valued at Euro 26 million , will help Maroc Telecom to enhance its network capacity in support of new broadband service delivery and particularly call centers and off shoring activities.
The submarine network will span more than 1,600 km between Marseille in France and Asilah in Morocco. Once completed in early 2007, it will enable Maroc Telecom to handle the increasing number of DSL subscribers* by leveraging enhanced connectivity and broadband access capabilities. Furthermore, it will create a new traffic route offering an alternative path to the existing 3,200 km Eurafrica submarine system linking France, Morocco and Portugal. The 320 Gbit/s capacity offered by the Marseille-Asilah connection will be 570 times higher than the one delivered by the Eurafrica submarine network. In addition, the new submarine link will benefit from advanced restoration capabilities and will serve as backhaul infrastructure for Eurafrica.
"New applications and services are increasingly raising the bar of the capacity, performance and efficiency that submarine networks must guarantee," stated Jean Godeluck, President of Alcatel's submarine networking activities. "Alcatel's optical networking solutions deliver the benefits of maximum network effectiveness to support our customer in best serving their end-users."
The Alcatel turnkey solution will be based on its DWDM submarine equipment, including the 1620 Light Manager (LM) submarine line terminal, and repeatered cables, as well as the 1678 Metro Core Connect (MCC) for terrestrial applications. All the equipment will be managed by Alcatel's 1350 management suite. Furthermore, Alcatel will be in charge of the installation, commissioning, integration and testing of the entire system, along with post-commissioning support.
* 296,000 subscribers in the first quarter 2006, a 225% increase compared to the first quarter 2005. (Source: Maroc Telecom press release on 2006 first quarter consolidated earnings, issued on May 15, 2006).
About Maroc Telecom
Maroc Telecom is Morocco's incumbent telecommunications operator, and the country's market leader in fixed-line and mobile telecommunications and Internet access. Since December 2004, Maroc Telecom is listed on the Casablanca and Paris stock exchanges and its main shareholders are Vivendi Universal (51%) and the Kingdom of Morocco (34.1%). In 2005, Maroc Telecom reported consolidated revenues of EUR 1.9 billion. For more information, please visit http://www.iam.ma
About Alcatel
Alcatel provides communications solutions to telecommunication carriers, Internet service providers and enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video applications to their customers or employees. Alcatel brings its leading position in fixed and mobile broadband networks, applications and services, to help its partners and customers build a user-centric broadband world. With sales of EURO 13.1 billion and 58,000 employees in 2005, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet: http://www.alcatel.com | |
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