ECI Lands Romanian SDH Deal

PETAH TIKVA, Israel -- ECI Telecom (NASDAQ:ECIL - News) announced today that it has implemented the XDM® Multi-Service Provisioning Platform (MSPP) in Astral Telecom's network. Astral Telecom is one of the most significant national providers in Romania of Analog and Digital Cable TV, Internet, and voice services. The XDM MSPP is already installed in Astral's national 10 Gbps (STM-64/OC-192) SDH backbone network and connects all the major cities in Romania. The contract is specifically designed to provide Astral's customers with next generation services.

ECI's Build-As-You-Grow(TM) approach will provide Astral with cost savings and ease of integration, and the additional capacity needed for leasing lines to other carriers and for cross border interconnection. The new platform will enable Astral to better utilize its network resources and further develop in order to connect new cities and expand its portfolio of services. At the same time, the XDM MSPP platforms allow Astral to experience a smooth migration to DWDM as the network grows without changing the existing platform.

"Astral has grown tremendously over the last two years. The XDM MSPP platforms implementation is the result of both our development and our clients' evolution. The new platform enables us to position ourselves as a significant provider in Romania's competitive market," said Dinu Malacopol, CEO, Internet, Data and Telephony of Astral. "We deployed STM-64 and STM-16 rings that will allow us to meet our objective of aggressively developing into Romania's greatest national carrier and a full next generation services provider. As we finalized the implementation of the XDM MSPPs, we can now launch our digital television services in all major cities, and our broadband services will be empowered with unprecedented capacity," Malacopol added.

"This latest contract with Astral Telecom confirms our continued traction in key Eastern European markets like Romania," said Eli Peled, President of the Eastern Europe business unit at ECI Telecom. "We are delighted to serve important players in this market like Astral Telecom with our flexible solution that will allow them to achieve their goals to grow their business opportunities significantly."

ECI Telecom Ltd.