Nokia and KG Telecom sign agreement to expand GPRS and GSM network services in Taiwan

Nokia and KG Telecom have signed an agreement worth over USD 150 million, which will see the major expansion of GSM 1800 services in Taiwan. KG Telecom have also completed the installation of Nokia's GPRS core network solution, within their existing network.

With this agreement, the GSM equipment supplied by Nokia will now cover the Central area of Taiwan. GPRS services will also be expanded throughout Taiwan, with extensive support from Nokia Professional Services. Together with previous agreements to cover the Northern and Southern regions, this will now allow the Nokia installed GPRS network to cover the entire island of Taiwan. Nokia supplied KG Telecom with two GSM network expansions and a GPRS core network solution earlier last year.

The contract includes the supply of a range of GSM equipment including Nokia mobile switching centres, home location registers, base station controllers and base stations. This equipment will be GPRS-enabled including software upgrades for packet data services. In addition, Nokia will provide a full package of services, covering Project Management, Radio and Datacom Planning and planning tools, Network Implementation, Operating Support Services, Emergency Service training, as well as Hardware Services and Software Maintenance.

Nokia has now delivered more than 30 GPRS core networks, more than any other supplier has delivered to-date. Nokia's success in the competitive GPRS market is because it offers a secure, end-to-end solution, with a complete IP billing system and customer care package including the Nokia Charging Centre.

"Nokia's GPRS offers secure high-speed transmission for IP-based data traffic. With the continued rise in our mobile subscriber base and Internet connections in Taiwan, we see a future demand for access to content-rich, high bit-rate services," says Jimmy Yau, President & COO, KG Telecom. "With this agreement we will now be able to expand our offering of quality GSM and all IP-based GPRS services to our customers across the entire market of Taiwan."

"This is a significant contract for Nokia, and we are pleased to continue our partnership with KG Telecom, as voice and data traffic shift towards mobility." says Petri Reijonen, General Manager, Nokia Taiwan. "GPRS is part of the future 3G infrastructure, and an increasing number of operators around the world are choosing Nokia for the supply of their commercial GPRS networks as they invest in laying the ground for mobile multimedia services."

The Nokia GPRS solution includes the Internet Protocol (IP) core network infrastructure, the Serving GPRS support Node, the Gateway GPRS Support Node, the Domain Name Server, the Charging Gateway, Firewall and Ethernet switches. The hardware is already commercially capable and also supports all ETSI specified interfaces and standards.

Nokia is paving the way to the Mobile Information Society with its innovative products and solutions. The company is the leading mobile phone supplier and a leading supplier of mobile, fixed and IP networks, related services as well as multimedia terminals. In 1999, Nokia's net sales totaled EUR 19.8 billion (USD 19.9 billion). Headquartered in Finland, Nokia is listed on the New York (NOK), Helsinki, Stockholm, London, Frankfurt and Paris stock exchanges and employs more than 56 000 people.

Further information:
Communications Department, Nokia Networks
Tel.(Int.)+ 358 9 5113 8193,
Fax (Int.)+358 9 5113 8199
Email nokia.networks@nokia.com

www.nokia.com