SingTel Picks Alcatel

PARIS -- Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) today announced that Singapore Telecommunications Limited (SingTel), Southeast Asia's largest telecommunications company, has selected Alcatel for the first ever Gigabit Passive Optical Networking (GPON) trial in the Asia Pacific region and the first residential Metro Ethernet trial in Singapore.

The SingTel GPON and Metro Ethernet trials, which begin this summer, will utilize a future-proof fiber access technology in the Singapore market.

In March 2006, Singapore announced plans to create a Next Generation National Infocomm Infrastructure (Next Gen NII), which aims to evolve to a nation-wide platform for information sharing and communication. The Next Gen NII will be capable of delivering ultra-high speeds of 100 Mbps to 1 Gbps as early as 2008, enabling advanced triple play services (voice, video, and data).

"SingTel considers our role as being complementary to the upcoming plan. We have the most extensive and advanced fibre optic network in Singapore and we are committed to evolving and enhancing our network infrastructure to enable the delivery of innovative services to meet market demand," said Hui Weng Cheong, SingTel's Vice President (Consumer Product) and CEO of SingNet. "By trialling GPON and Metro Ethernet solutions with Alcatel, we are creating the framework for ultra-high speed broadband access services, thereby delivering even greater value to our customers" Mr Hui added.

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