Alcatel Extends RailTel India Net

PARIS -- Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) today announced that it has successfully completed the 5,000 km extension of the existing optical multi-service telecommunications transport network of RAILTEL Corporation of India, a subsidiary of Indian Railways. This network enhancement further supports RAILTEL's operational and business communication requirements, such as secure voice, video and data traffic transmission. As a result, RAILTEL can leverage significant performance, efficiency and quality of service benefits for its customers, along with competitively providing wholesale bandwidth to other telecom operators and enterprises.

The extension project, which was awarded through Punjab Communications, India's premier telecom and IT equipment and solution provider, follows the successful implementation of the 11,000 km backbone network supporting multimedia communications among RAILTEL's sites throughout India. Existing and new mission-critical business applications, supported by Gigabit Ethernet-based connectivity, are delivered over a single, converged platform that enables reliable, real-time access to monitoring and control information.

"Transportation companies are increasingly requested to enhance their optical transport networks to introduce new data applications for advanced traffic monitoring," said Romano Valussi, President of Alcatel's optical networking activities. "Alcatel has the portfolio and project management expertise to deliver tailored solutions that fit the requirements of vertical markets for mission-critical applications and business efficiency."

Alcatel (NYSE: ALA; Paris: CGEP:PA)