Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications, a leading innovator in mobile phone technology and applications, today announces the signing of a three-year agreement to become the official mobile phone of the Tennis Masters Cup, Shanghai. The Tennis Masters Cup takes place for the second year running at Qi Zhong Stadium, Shanghai from 12-19 November 2006.

Sony Ericsson has exclusive worldwide rights as ‘Official Mobile Phone of the Tennis Masters Cup’ and will enjoy prominent on-court brand presence, on-screen score graphics during all national and international broadcasts, global promotional rights and top level hospitality and tickets at the men’s season-ending finale.

The Tennis Masters Cup is the culmination of the men’s professional tennis year where the top eight players, and the world’s best doubles teams, battle it out to be the best of the best. Roger Federer, who was runner-up last year to David Nalbandian, and Rafael Nadal already have booked their places at the 2006 Tennis Masters Cup with the remaining six singles places being closely contested by the ATP’s top players. Doubles teams Bob and Mike Bryan, Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi, Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett, Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor, and Martin Damm and Leander Paes all have qualified for the doubles tournament.

Gunilla NordstrГ¶m, President of Sony Ericsson China, said: “This demonstrates Sony Ericsson’s commitment to the Chinese market as Shanghai and tennis will continue to host this major sporting event until at least 2008. This is another significant step in our global tennis sponsorship strategy and means that we now have landmark tennis events in three major regions: the Sony Ericsson Open, Miami for the Americas; the Sony Ericsson Championships, Madrid in Europe and now the Tennis Masters Cup in Asia.”

Nordstrom added: “We would like to take this opportunity to express our thanks for the China Open’s partnership with the ATP, the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and Sony Ericsson, which has provided a solid tennis platform in China.”

Etienne de Villiers, ATP Executive Chairman and President, stated: “Sony Ericsson has again demonstrated a

“Sony Ericsson is one of the world’s most exciting brands and we are very proud they have chosen to become a partner of the Tennis Masters Cup, said Brad Drewett, Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai Tournament Director. “Sony Ericsson joins a very prestigious list of top international and Chinese companies as Premier sponsors of the event. Sponsors recognize the many benefits of supporting the Masters Cup, which is one of the largest annual sporting events in China and has developed an enormous public following there.”

Sony Ericsson is one of 12 Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai Premier Sponsors, which includes Citigroup, Lacoste, South African Airways, Indesit, Rado, China Mobile, Shui On Land, Haworth Furniture, China Pacific Insurance, China Union Pay and Shanghai Petro. Heineken is the event’s Founding Sponsor and Mercedes-Benz is Principal Sponsor.

Efforts for development of CDMA business in China are being intensified as SK Telecom initiates joint sourcing of handsets with China Unicom.

SK Telecom and China Unicom (CEO Chang Xiaobing, www.chinaunicom.com) revealed on the 26th that Korea and China had decided on “joint handset sourcing” in order to target the two markets of Korea and China.

This is the first time that any conspicuous achievements have been announced since the strategic alliance between SK Telecom and China Unicom.

On June 21, SK Telecom established a contract for purchase of CBs worth USD 1 billion issued by China Unicom Limited, a company listed in Hong Kong. Also, through the establishment of a “Strategic Alliance for CDMA Services” with China Unicom, SK Telecom has announced alliance and cooperation in joint handset sourcing, joint development of additional services, joint platform development, marketing / distribution, CRM, and network.

As a result, for specific implementation of the 6 areas of strategic alliance between SK Telecom and China Unicom, a consultation group and task force consisting of 50 working level members from both companies are in operation, with discussions on specific ways of cooperation through mutual provision of consulting in each area, sharing of expertise, provision of market information, etc.

On September 11, a workshop was held in Busan for two days on the 6 areas of strategic partnership with participation by the CEOs of the two companies, with an agreement to make it a priority to pursue joint handset sourcing.

Through such an agreement, SK Telecom and China Unicom has agreed to source joint handsets of 6 types in the first half of 2007 for the Korea and China markets, and plan to continue expanding the supply of model types and volume by 2008.

The 6 types of joint sourcing handset models released in the first half of 2007 are subject to discussion among the 3 handset manufacturers, Samsung, LG, and Motorola, mostly targeting the mid-to-high-end market in China, with differentiated handsets based on CDMA20001x network with applications such as high quality LCD, 2 Mega Camera, and Bluetooth.

Going forward, in order to target the high-end and low-end markets of both countries, other than the 3 handset companies, diverse handset line-ups are planned for deployment upon discussion between Korean, Chinese and foreign handset makers. Through cooperation between the two companies, joint supply of mid-to-low priced models aimed at the China and Vietnam markets are also planned.

Through the joint sourcing of handsets, SK Telecom expects the acquisition of “handset price competitiveness through an economy of scale”, along with the differentiated wireless Internet and VAS of CDMA services that target the 20 million SK Telecom subscribers and 35 million China Unicom subscribers. Moreover, it is expected that this will contribute to the expansion of CDMA services within China.
SK Telecom’s CEO Shin-Bae Kim remarked, “It is quite significant that since the strategic alliance with China Unicom, we have been able to overcome various difficulties, such as the difference in the telecommunications environment of the two countries, to acquire handset competitiveness, which is the most important. As our first achievement comes based on the devoted work of the two companies, we hope that the joint sourcing of handsets will lead to a dramatic development of China Unicom’s CDMA business and a turning point for China’s CDMA business.

China Unicom’s CEO Chang Xiaobing remarked, “The joint sourcing of handsets will be an important basis for development of CDMA operations, and we will provide full support so that the diverse strategic ties between the two companies can bear fruit.”

SK Telecom and China Unicom revealed that other than joint handset sourcing, they are undergoing discussion for achieving results in other areas of cooperation under the strategic tie-up, such as joint VAS development, joint platform development, marketing/distribution, CRM, network, etc.

Nokia, a leading mobile telecommunications infrastructure supplier, and China Mobile Communications Corporation (China Mobile), the world’s largest GSM operator, have today signed a frame agreement for the purchase of Nokia GSM/GPRS network system equipment. The agreement, valued at EUR 580 million for the full year and for which deliveries have already started, further strengthens Nokia’s cooperation with China Mobile and reaffirms Nokia’s leading position in GSM network and mobile softswitch system deployments in the Chinese market.

Under the frame agreement, Nokia will supply China Mobile GSM/GPRS radio and core network equipment, including base stations and Nokia MSC Server mobile softswitch, for network expansions in China during 2006. In addition, Nokia will provide professional services, including network planning, implementation and care services for the network expansion. Deliveries have already started.

“The frame agreement reaffirms China Mobile’s trust in Nokia and our capability to provide complete solutions. Nokia is well positioned and fully committed to support operators exploring the potential of GSM networks. We can help operators to prepare for future network evolution with the unique end-to-end capability of our unified core network, multi-access solutions, handset leadership and services offering,” says James Lin, Vice President, Networks, Nokia China.

“We are extremely pleased with our cooperation with Nokia,” says Sha Yuejia, Vice President of China Mobile.

Nokia’s strategic cooperation with China Mobile started in 1994. Since then Nokia has provided GSM networks to over 20 of China Mobile’s provincial affiliates. With Nokia’s support, China Mobile has realized many industry firsts in China, including the first international GSM roaming network, the first GSM call, and the first multimedia service with a Nokia device supporting MMS.

Nokia leads the 3GPP compliant mobile softswitch market in China, and is a leading GSM network supplier in the Chinese market with over 20 provincial customers and 100 million mobile lines, of which 20 million are provided by mobile softswitching.