October 8, 2004 - The contracts were signed on the occasion of the official visit of Jacques Chirac, the President of France, to Hanoi, Vietnam during October 6 to 8, 2004.

Under the contracts, Alcatel will supply its next generation-ready Alcatel 1000 switching system to support the operator in expanding its fixed telephony services in five provinces in Vietnam including Nam dinh, Phu tho, Quang nam, Quang ninh and Soc trang. With Alcatel's solutions, VNPT will also be able to follow a secure yet flexible migration path toward Next Generation Networks, paving the way for the offering of more new services to end users in Vietnam in future. Upon completion of the deployment mid 2005, Alcatel will be able to support VNPT in providing reliable fixed telephony service to more than 2 million users in Vietnam.

In addition, Alcatel will provide Vietnam Mobile Telecom Services Co (VMS), the mobile service subsidiary of VNPT, with a complete GSM/GPRS/EDGE mobile network infrastructure solution including Evolium TM mobile radio and core solutions to expand operator's network capacity in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and allow VMS end-users to benefit from advanced value-added mobile services preparing the advent of broadband data.

Pierre Cascarino, Country Senior Officer and Chief Representative of Alcatel in Vietnam, said, "Since our establishment in Vietnam 17 years ago, Alcatel has been contributing to the local telecom market development. Our long-standing partnership with VNPT is a concrete proof of Alcatel's expertise and capabilities in meeting the end user needs in Vietnam. As the world's telecom market is evolving towards User-Centric Broadband, Alcatel will continue helping VNPT deploy truly convergent broadband networks and deliver the right set of User-Centric Broadband applications to end users."

Alcatel has been working with VNPT in building up the telecom infrastructure in Vietnam since 1989. Most recently, VNPT and Alcatel have entered into an agreement to deploy Alcatel's Voice over IP and next generation multimedia network solutions in the Research Institute of Posts and Telecommunications (RIPT) in order to trial new-generation services such as Voice over IP; multimedia conferencing; enhanced Internet service as well as Intelligent Network services (i.e. Pre-paid, Advanced Freephone).

About VNPT

Vietnam posts and Telecommunications (VNPT) is the country's major state-owned post and telecommunications provider. It focuses on providing infrastructure and services to the nation's residents, managing logistics and sourcing, acting as consultant to other entities in the sector, and promoting postal and telecom industry development. VNPT owns eight state-affiliated companies, eight joint ventures and 13 other subsidiaries. For more information, please visit VNPT's web site: http://www.vnpt.com.vn

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