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Global Caribbean Network and Alcatel inaugurate new regional submarine cable network


WEBWIRE

Paris, February 9, 2006 — Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA e NYSE: ALA) and Global Caribbean Network (GCN), a subsidiary of the Group Loret, today inaugurated, the beginning of the installation of a new regional submarine cable network in Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe. Commissioned by the Regional Council of Guadeloupe, this turnkey project will provide high-speed connectivity in the Caribbean.

“This network deployment is part of a larger project to provide the region with the most advanced telecom infrastructures linking Guadeloupe and the Caribbean countries, while creating value-added services for residential and business users,” said Victorin Lurel, President of Guadeloupe’s Regional Council.

“This new submarine cable system will allow GCN to become a major telecommunication player in the Eastern Caribbean by providing cost-efficient broadband access and connectivity to the region”, stated Ehsan Emami, President at GCN.

The submarine cable network spans 890 km, connecting Basse-Terre and Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe to San Juan in Puerto Rico, St. Croix in the Virgin Islands through the St. Martin and St. Barthélémy islands. Offering a final network capacity of over 1 Tbit/s, the GCN cable system will also interconnect with the Middle Caribbean Network (MCN) submarine cable system extending the regional communication coverage to Martinique and Dominica.

“We are proud to support GCN in this project by making available the network functionality and flexibility required to cope with the end-user demand for high-quality bandwidth services,” stated Jean Godeluck, President of Alcatel’s submarine network activity.

The Alcatel solution is based on its new-generation dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) submarine line terminal, as well as its 1626 Light Manager and Optical Multi-Service Node (OMSN) systems for terrestrial applications. This equipment are managed by Alcatel 1350 management suite optimizing bandwidth usage for fast and reliable broadband service rollout. In addition to marine and terrestrial installation, Alcatel was also in charge of the project commissioning and integration.

About Global Caribbean Network
Global Caribbean Network (GCN) is a new cable operator in the Caribbean region. GCN is a subsidiary of Group Loret, one of the major actors in the French West Indies and Guiana economies, with sales of Euro 500 million in 2005. GCN has been awarded by the Regional Council of Guadeloupe (FWI) a Public Service Delegation contract to build and operate a new submarine cable linking Guadeloupe, Puerto Rico, St.Croix, St. Martin and St. Barthlemy to the rest of the world. GCN will provide to local and international operators broadband services at a very cost-effective level

About Alcatel
Alcatel provides communications solutions to telecommunication carriers, Internet service providers and enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video applications to their customers or employees. Alcatel brings its leading position in fixed and mobile broadband networks, applications and services, to help its partners and customers build a user-centric broadband world. With sales of EURO 13.1 billion and 58,000 employees in 2005, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries.



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