Alcatel LMDS Selected for MobilRom Network

Paris -- Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) today announced that MobilRom, the Romanian subsidiary of France Telecom Group's Orange, has selected Alcatel's industry leading Local Multipoint Distribution Services (LMDS) to provide mobile backhaul for their GSM mobile network. MobilRom selected Alcatel's LMDS solution after conducting extensive field trials earlier this summer. The deployment of the 26GHz network will cover 33 cities of Romania, starting with Bucharest, Timisoara, Brasov and Constantza, and is expected to be operational in October 2001. The contract with Romania's leading mobile operator highlights a growing trend in the fixed wireless industry to use LMDS to backhaul growing amounts of voice and data traffic from mobile phone users, on top of the traditional broadband services it allows.Alcatel