ZAO Sky Link, the largest CDMA450 operator in Russia and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and Lucent Technologies (NYSE: LU) today announced they are increasing the voice capacity of the Sky Link network in Krasnodar and enhancing it with CDMA2000 1xEV-DO technology. OAO Krasnodar Cellular Network, the regional Sky Link operator, and Lucent are upgrading existing Lucent base stations with CDMA2000 1xEV-DO technology and installing new equipment that will enable the operator’s Sky Turbo service, which provides data speeds of up to 2.4 Megabits per second. The project is beginning in the cities of Krasnodar, Sochi, and Novorossisk.

“Sky Turbo brings new, profitable multimedia services to the region and will help grow Sky Link’s reputation as a full-service 3G operator,” said Alexandr Piotrovsky, deputy general director of strategic marketing and sales for Sky Link. “The high data speeds enabled by CDMA2000 1xEV-DO – the main advantage of CDMA450 compared to the 2G standards – enables the proliferation of 3G services in the regional markets.”

“Subscribers in the Krasnodar territory and Adygea are the leaders in terms of mobile data consumption on Sky Link’s network,” said Michael Mochulsky, general director of Sky Link-Krasnodar. “In July, the share of non-voice services in our revenues grew up to 48 percent. The powerful Sky Turbo service delivers an enhanced mobile data experience to our subscribers and our main task is to make the access to the new services as convenient as possible.”

Within the project’s framework, existing Lucent base stations are being upgraded with CDMA2000 1xEV-DO channel cards and software. The Lucent Radio Network Controller (RNC) is being deployed to ensure a flexible and scalable management of the network’s RF (radio frequency) resources. Lucent Worldwide Services is providing installation and integration services.

“Every time we introduce EV-DO technology in the Russian markets, we see how it helps operators gain significant momentum via the introduction of new high-speed mobile data services,” said Dmitry Kamensky, managing director, Lucent Technologies Russia and CIS. “Operators that have deployed the technology are able to offer their subscribers various new, revenue-generating services.”

The EV-DO based Sky Turbo service delivers high-speed mobile data services and Internet access to Sky Link’s subscribers. It features the highest mobile data speeds available in Russia. The Sky Turbo service was commercially launched in December 2005 in the Sky Link-Moscow and Sky Link-St. Petersburg networks simultaneously. In March 2006, the Sky Link-Ekaterinburg network’s subscribers were granted access to the service.

Trial tests demonstrated that Sky Turbo enables subscribers to download files at average data speeds of 600-700 kilobits per second given standard network load conditions. The advanced wireless broadband Internet access and data transmission technology provides Sky Link’s subscribers with fast downloading of Internet content and large files, e-mail, IPTV, and remote video surveillance services.

The Sky Link network is based on the IMT-MC-450 standard (CDMA2000 1X and 1xEV-DO technology deployed in the 450 MHz frequency range), which provides advanced digital mobile communication services to subscribers — reliable, high-quality voice communication with the highest degree of unauthorized access protection, and high-speed data services including Internet access.

Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) and Delta Telecom, a leading cellular operator in Russia who operates under the Sky Link brand and provides CDMA-450 services in the city of St.Petersburg, Leningrad, Pskov and Novgorod regions, as well as in the Republic of Karelia, today announced the signature of a contract, to modernize the operator’s backbone network in the city of St. Petersburg and the region.

“We have partnered with Alcatel since 2001,” said Constantine Kolomensky, Director of Network Development for Sky Link St.Petersburg. “To keep leading position in the telecommunication market of the North-West region of Russia, we must continuously evolve our network. Benefiting from Alcatel’s expertise in optical networking, we will be well positioned to give our customers access to the most advanced highly reliable services, while reducing our total cost of network ownership.”

“Sky Link turned to Alcatel because of its ability to help transform their network in a timely manner and address subscriber demand for new, attractive services,” stated Romano Valussi, president of Alcatel’s optical networking solutions. “Setting the stage for a future migration to IP radio access networks, Alcatel’s optical networking solutions support the operator’s requirements for increased capacity driven by bandwidth-consuming mobile services”.

Sky Link represents a new breed of mobile operators that are turning to Alcatel to upgrade their infrastructure for the mobile data revolution. The Alcatel solution will be based on its data-aware Optical Multi-Service Node (OMSN) systems offering Delta Telecom a single platform optimized to aggregate multiple traffic types and backhaul the mobile traffic from base stations to the core. Furthermore, mobile switches will be interconnected though the Alcatel 1692 Metrospan Edge coarse wavelength division multiplexing (CWDM) system providing Gigabit Ethernet connectivity to cope with service growth. Alcatel will also upgrade the existing Alcatel 1350 management suite – which enables to manage packet, TDM and wavelength connectivity services.

Providing advanced multiplexing, aggregation and optical protection management, the Alcatel solution will enable Sky Link St. Petersburg to efficiently meet the growing needs for mobile voice and high-speed data services in the city of St. Petersburg and its area. The project is scheduled for completion in the third quarter of 2006.

Huawei Technologies announced that it has won and signed a contract to construct a CDMA2000 network for Skylink, the largest CDMA operator in the Commonwealth Independent States (CIS).

According to the contract, Huawei will now provide CDMA20001X/1x EV-DO network in 25 regions and cities in the CIS, making it responsible for half of Russia’s CDMA market share.

As the preferred supplier of Skylink, Huawei is responsible for supplying CDMA solutions for Skylink’s overall network. As a result of its outstanding performance in the first stage of the construction of Skylink’s CDMA network in 2004, Huawei successfully won additional contracts to deploy CDMA solutions in 14 others cities and expanded its existing contracts within five other cities in Russia.

Mr. Rozinova Raisa, CEO of Skylink, commented, “Skylink will be providing 3G broadband high-speed wireless Internet services to consumers in Russia and Huawei’s excellence in creating customized, innovative products has made great impressions on us. We are delighted to establish a strategic partnership with a leading vendor like Huawei.”

Mr. Yelin Sun, President of Huawei’s CIS, said “We are proud to launch a full-performance commercial network for Skylink once again. With our leading technology in CDMA20001X/1x EV-DO, we will bring the fastest and highest quality 3G multimedia communication to consumers in Russia.”
To date, Huawei has won over 19 CDMA2000 1xEV-DO commercial contracts and deployed CDMA networks serving over 40 million network subscribers worldwide. In November 2005, the analyst house, Frost & Sullivan, cited the company as one of the new “Big Three” in the CDMA2000 1X/1xEV-DO industry.