PARIS -- Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) today announced that it has been awarded a contract by Fazenda da Grama Condominium, a golf community in Brazil, for the delivery of triple play communication services, including voice over IP, video, and high-speed Internet over one single optical fiber. This is the first fiber-to-the-user (FTTU) project in Latin America to a private local community and it thus reinforces a market trend that until recently had generated interest primarily in North America.

The Fazenda da Grama project allows community members to access the Internet at blazing speeds, hundreds of times faster than dial-up access, watch a variety of video programming, and maintain superior voice communication simultaneously over optical fiber. In parallel, Alcatel reinforces its capability in delivering innovative triple play services, and confirms its leadership in the development of FTTU standards.

According to the contract, Alcatel will supply to Fazenda da Grama the industry's unique, standardbased residential passive optical network (PON) equipment, the Alcatel 7340 FTTU, which has proven to offer low-risk implementation, high capacity and superior value versus cable. Alcatel will also provide its Alcatel OmniPCX Enterprise to deliver integrated IP telephony.

"Fazenda da Grama was built to provide the utmost in personalized services to our residents. From the design of our golf course to Alcatel's broadband access portfolio, we aim at meeting the highest standards of the Brazilian residential real state market," said Aluizio Rebello de Araujo, entrepreneur who idealized the Fazenda da Grama condominium project.

Alcatel SA