ARIA awards a multi-year contract to Alcatel-Lucent for Italy’s first nationwide commercial WiMAX Rev-e broadband network

Paris — Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) has been selected by ARIA, a leading wireless Internet access provider in Italy, as prime supplier for building and maintaining a nation-wide wireless broadband network based on WiMAX 802.16e-2005 (Rev-e) technology. This first nationwide commercial WiMAX network in Italy will be one of the largest WiMAX networks in Europe.The first 130 sites will be deployed by Alcatel-Lucent in Puglia and Veneto Regions.

“Our strategy is to bring broadband rapidly all over Italy, as we want to help develop economic activities, improve our citizen’s quality of life and reach underserved areas,” said Mario Citelli, ARIA’s CEO. ”We chose Alcatel-Lucent as our technical partner and we are launching our commercial offer at the same time. This agreement will enable us to offer high quality services, thanks to Alcatel-Lucent’s large scale project management capabilities and its quick-to-deploy wireless WiMAX.”

This new network will enable ARIA to provide municipalities, businesses, small office/home office (SoHo) and residential users with high-speed access to the Internet as well as advanced broadband multimedia services, such as video streaming. In a second phase of the project, ARIA plans to introduce voice over IP (VoIP) and virtual private network (VPN) services.

“Alcatel-Lucent is fully committed to helping ARIA in its strategy to bridge the digital divide in Italy, providing broadband connections to people that have long been underserved, in turn promoting the economic and social development of these communities,” added Pierre Barnabé, President of Alcatel-Lucent’s activities in France, Iberia & Italy. “This contract illustrates how WiMAX Rev-e technology has moved into a new phase of commercial maturity, and offers an attractive, economical way for service providers to deliver broadband services.”

In the framework of the contract, Alcatel-Lucent will act as network integrator with a wide range of services such as network planning and engineering, site & technology implementation to provide a turnkey WiMAX Rev-e solution, including base stations, wireless access controllers, backhaul transport microwave equipment as well as an operations and maintenance center (OMC).

About Alcatel-Lucent’s position in WiMAX
With 34 commercial contracts and more than 70 trials around the world, Alcatel-Lucent is the undisputed leader in the WiMAX infrastructure market, benefiting from end to end integration and implementation capabilities. This market leadership uniquely positions Alcatel-Lucent to help customers launch end-user services effectively and in a record time.As a result of its strong market position, Alcatel-Lucent also has established itself as a key driver of the development of the WiMAX ecosystem, with its Open Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) Program becoming one of the industry’s premiere showcases and test-beds for WiMAX terminals from many of the world’s leading WiMAX device vendors. Thanks to Alcatel-Lucent’s Open CPE Program, the company’s radio access infrastructure supports a wide range of attractively priced terminals in all form factors and from various equipment partners. Learn more about Alcatel-Lucent’s end-to-end solution: http://www1.alcatel-lucent.com/serviceproviders/wimax/

About ARIA
ARIA S.p.a., founded in 2005, became one of the most important Italian WISP (Wireless Internet Service Provider) in only 2 years. In October 2007, tanks to new partners entry and new company structure, Aria became more competitive. In January 2008, Aria won the auction of the WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) 3.5GHz radio frequencies in all Italian regions.

About Alcatel-Lucent
Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) is the trusted partner of service providers, enterprises and governments worldwide, providing solutions that deliver voice, data and video communication services to end-users. A leader in fixed, mobile and converged broadband networking, IP technologies, applications and services, Alcatel-Lucent leverages the unrivalled technical and scientific expertise of Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation powerhouses in the communications industry. With operations in more than 130 countries and the most experienced global services organization in the industry, Alcatel-Lucent is a local partner with a global reach. Alcatel-Lucent achieved revenues of Euro 17.8 billion in 2007 and is incorporated in France, with executive offices located in Paris. For more information, visit Alcatel-Lucent on the Internet: http://www.alcatel-lucent.com