Sky Link and Lucent Technologies Announce Plans to Expand Mobile Voice and Data Network to Offer Advanced Services in New Regional Markets

HANNOVER, Germany, or MOSCOW, March 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sky Link, a telecommunications holding company established to develop a nationwide CDMA450 network in Russia, and Lucent Technologies today announced that Lucent was selected as a supplier for 10 new regions in Russia in the project to expand and upgrade Sky Link's network to support additional services. By summer 2006, Sky Link plans to expand the coverage of its Lucent-supplied CDMA2000 1.EV-DO network -- which supports mobile high-speed data services at speeds of up to 2.4 Megabits per second (Mbps) -- to the Belgorod, Volgograd, Vologda, Vladimir, Kursk, Lipetsk, and Tver regions, Krasnodar and Altai territories, and in the North Ossetia-Alania Republic. This project continues the establishment of the unified federal CDMA450 network under the Sky Link brand, and includes both the regional expansion and technical upgrade of the network. Following the deployment, both local and roaming subscribers in these regions will be able to access reliable, high- quality, secure voice and data services including mobile video, mobile office solutions, and other broadband applications.

"In 2005 we successfully deployed EV-DO technology in Moscow and St. Petersburg thus strengthening our technological leadership in the Russian mobile communications market," said Raisa Rozinova, general director, Sky Link. "We've provided Sky Link network subscribers with the fastest mobile data speeds and mobile Internet experience. We will work in cooperation with our partners to leverage our technological advantages to offer the same capabilities to Sky Link customers in the other regions of Russia."

"The experience of our customers in other countries that have deployed 1xEV-DO networks demonstrates the demand for mobile high-speed data services," said Dmitry Kamensky, managing director, Lucent Technologies in Russia and CIS. "Today, Lucent's solutions are supporting commercial EV-DO services in North and South America, the Asia Pacific region and Eastern Europe, providing subscribers with some of the most advanced mobile services available worldwide. Sky Link was a pioneer in deploying this technology in Russia, which has offered a variety of compelling competitive advantages. We look forward to helping Sky Link further enhance its network and offer a powerful and attractive service to customers throughout the region."

For the project, Lucent is supplying its CDMA2000 solution for the 450 .Hz frequency band, including its Mobile Switching Center (MSC) and new Modular Cell 4.0 Compact base stations, which offer a smaller footprint and cost- efficient power consumption. The Lucent CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Radio Network Controller (RNC) will ensure the flexibility and scalability of network radio resources management. Lucent Worldwide Services will provide network deployment, training and support services.

In the near future, Sky Link is planning a migration to an enhanced version of CDMA2000 1xEV-DO called Revision A, which increases the efficiency, data speeds and capacity of existing EV-DO networks. CDMA2000 1xEV-DO Revision A enables users to receive data (forward link) at speeds of theoretically up to 3.1 Mbps and send data (reverse link) at speeds of theoretically up to 1.8 Mbps. These increased reverse link data speeds reduce data latency and will enable mobile operators to deliver VoIP and other multimedia services on CDMA2000 networks in the future.

About the companies

Sky Link, the largest CDMA operator in Russia, operates an IMT-MC 450 network supporting CDMA2000 1X and 1xEV-DO technology offering voice and data services such as high-quality voice, high-speed Internet access and multimedia services to its residential and business customers. Sky Link's licensed territory covers 65 regions of the Russian Federation and more than 72 percent of the country's population. CDMA's technological advantages enable the Sky Link network to support large volumes of data traffic and various applications such as streaming video and access to corporate LANs at high speeds. Sky Link has successfully consolidated regional assets and is implementing a large- scale modernization policy to migrate the regional NMT-450 operators to advanced digital technology. In 2006, Sky Link -- under the framework of a national wireless wideband network construction project -- plans to extend its services to cover the whole licensed territory and provide its subscribers advanced, high-speed and content-rich services. For further information on the company, please visit: http://www.skylink.ru/.

Lucent Technologies designs and delivers the systems, services and software that drive next-generation communications networks. Backed by Bell Labs research and development, Lucent uses its strengths in mobility, optical, software, data and voice networking technologies, as well as services, to create new revenue-generating opportunities for its customers, while enabling them to quickly deploy and better manage their networks. Lucent's customer base includes communications service providers, governments and enterprises worldwide. For more information on Lucent Technologies, which has headquarters in Murray Hill, N.J., USA, visit http://www.lucent.com/.

In Russia and CIS, Lucent Technologies offers its solutions to carriers, ISPs, and business customers. For more information on Lucent Technologies in Russia and CIS, visit its Russian Web site at http://www.lucent.ru/.

CDMA2000 is a registered trademark of the Telecommunications Industry Association.