'World's Most Innovative GSM Network' Chooses Motorola for GPRS Data Solution; RadioMobil's Paegas To Provide Fast Data Services Over GSM.

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 14, 1999--

Motorola, Inc.'s Network Solutions Sector (NSS) and RadioMobil of the Czech Republic have signed a contract to deploy a General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) system on RadioMobil's `Paegas' GSM network. The initial GPRS network will cover the major cities of Prague and Brno, enabling RadioMobil to offer its customers an unlimited range of new data services via their mobile phones.

The implementation of GPRS will enable RadioMobil's customers to enter the millennium with true information on the move - fast, accessible and economic data transfer - making the mobile phone an indispensable tool for business and leisure. As GPRS is packet-based, GSM network operators have the option to charge customers by the data packets used, rather than on the circuit-switched activity on existing GSM services.

The Motorola NSS GPRS system is designed to support efficient, cost-effective, end-to-end packet-mode access to Internet-based data communications services - including email, web access and mobile banking - over GSM networks. The system utilises key elements from Cisco Systems Inc., the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet.(1)

RadioMobil's Paegas GSM network system has been supplied and supported by Motorola's NSS since its launch in September 1996, and now serves over half a million subscribers throughout the Czech Republic. During 1998, network growth registered over 100 per cent, reflecting the enormous demand for mobile voice and data services. Motorola's existing installed GSM system for RadioMobil requires no modification to carry GPRS services - the high performance packet data communications core network will simply be overlaid on the existing GSM network.

In February this year, at the GSM World Congress in Cannes, RadioMobil collected the GSM Association's award for `Best Technical Innovation for the GSM Market' for the delivery of data and text - `non-voice' - GSM services for customers, offered via a comprehensive range of SMS (Short Message Service) Bearer Services. RadioMobil has already harnessed the range of possibilities offered by this standard GSM connection, and has one of the highest rates of SMS usage per subscriber in the world.

"With the anticipated growth in data traffic, we need to be ready to provide the innovation the market will demand," said Tereza Kakosova, spokesperson for RadioMobil. "Motorola has been instrumental in building Paegas into the leading GSM network in terms of technical innovation, and our customers are among the most sophisticated in the world. We are confident that Motorola's GPRS solution is the best choice for the best network."

Anders Gustafsson, general manager of Motorola's European Network Solutions Division, said: "Building the Paegas network for RadioMobil was one of the most challenging projects we have undertaken, and subsequently is one of the most rewarding to develop. As the industry moves into the new generation of mobile data networks, we are proud to be leading the way with RadioMobil."

Motorola's GPRS network is designed around a powerful Internet Protocol (IP) routing engine, providing operators with a scaleable and flexible solution that can tailor the packet switching capacity in line with the predicted data traffic increase over GSM. By 2005, data could account for some 80 per cent of GSM network traffic, according to industry analysts Analysys.

(1)Earlier this year, Motorola and Cisco Systems Inc., the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet, announced a strategic alliance to develop and deliver a New World framework for Internet-based, wireless networks. This collaboration will deliver the first all-IP platform for the wireless industry, which will unite different standards for wireless services worldwide, and introduce an open Internet-based platform for integrated data, voice and video services over cellular networks.

Cisco and Motorola plan to jointly invest as much as $1 billion over four to five years to deliver a wireless Internet, establishing Internet Solutions Centres of Excellence worldwide to drive innovation within the wireless industry and encourage third-party companies to develop and create new services and products based on open Internet standards.

Motorola is a global leader in providing integrated communications solutions and embedded electronics solutions. Sales in 1998 were $29.4 billion.