ESPOO, Finland -- Nokia and Advanced Info Service Plc (AIS), one of Thailand's leading mobile phone service operators, have signed a deal worth over USD 55 million to expand AIS' GSM network in the Northern, Central and Southern regions of Thailand. The expansion will improve network coverage and capacity and enable AIS to boost service quality and offer innovative multimedia and convergence services.

Under the agreement, Nokia is supplying radio network expansion and Nokia Unified Core Network solutions, including IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), 3GPP Release 4 MSC Server and Nokia Presence solution. The expansion is supported by Nokia's systems integration, implementation, optimization, project management and consulting services. The system continues to be supported by the unique multitechnology Nokia NetAct(TM) solution.

"AIS continues to dominate Thailand's mobile services despite the challenges posed by the price competition in the market," says Ms. Arpattra Sringkarrinkul, Executive Vice President, Solutions AIS. "Thanks to Nokia's flexibility and end-to-end capability, we have been able to quickly respond to the subscriber growth and to differentiate our service offering with new innovative multimedia and convergence services."

"Nokia is pleased to continue the successful cooperation with AIS in expanding its GSM network to meet the subscriber growth and heated local competition," says Somchai Thamsirisup, Account Director, Networks, Nokia. "The collaboration now extends to cover strategic non-voice and IP-based services."