PARIS -- Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) today announced that SaudiAramco, the world leader in crude oil production, has selected the Alcatel 7670 Routing SwitchPlatform (RSP) to build a carrier class high speed backbone for its mission critical applications. TheAlcatel 7670 RSP will provide Saudi Aramco data centers with the enhanced performance needed topreserve existing data, video and voice services, while also providing a go-forward investment uponwhich to deploy and evolve new IP-based services.

Saudi Aramco currently provides data network connectivity for over 35,000 corporate users both inthe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and around the world. With deployment already underway, the Alcatel7670 RSP will operate in several areas to build a highly reliable, scalable, and fault-tolerantbackbone that provides centralized connectivity for enterprise servers at all campus locations. Manyof the projects being implemented, such as Enterprise Resource Planning, video streaming andvideoconferencing, are dependent upon a backbone with these attributes to meet the high growth ofIP traffic.

“Saudi Aramco's operations span the globe and the energy industry,” said Dr. Ibrahim Mishari, VicePresident Information Technology and CIO. “As the world leader in crude oil production, SaudiAramco heavily impacts Saudi Arabia’s industrial sector. It is vital that we build a reliable high speednetwork that can handle our most critical communication’s needs.”Integrating IP, MPLS and ATM on a single platform, the multiprotocol Alcatel 7670 RSP represents anew breed of product that combines support for both legacy and new applications and services. Thisunique product architecture allows service providers to migrate at their own pace toward theirchosen type of network.

Alcatel SA