Alcatel Selected as the Sole Supplier for Maintenance of Undersea Communication Networks in the North Sea.

Business Editors/High Tech Writers

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 25, 2001

A key success for Alcatel's marine maintenance business

Alcatel, (Paris: CGEP.PA, NYSE: ALA), a world leader in intelligent optical networking, has signed a 33-month agreement to provide maintenance for all submarine networks laid in the North Sea.

This agreement has been awarded by the North Sea Cable Maintenance Agreement (NSCMA). This is a group of cable owning carriers, such as Concert, Deutsche Telekom, Tele Danmark, KPN, Telia and France Telecom, who agree to share the cost of maintenance cover. The contract will be effective from April 2002 until the end of 2004. Two state-of-the-art vessels from Alcatel's maintenance fleet will be posted in the North Sea region to repair any eventual undersea system damage in the region. This contract is a major success for Alcatel's development in the business of submarine network maintenance.

Alcatel was selected for its proven capability of rapid intervention to repair submarine systems. Alcatel will coordinate all operations from one point of contact in Copenhagen, Denmark. When an individual cable owner identifies a fault in its cable, it will deal directly with Alcatel, the sole company selected for the NSCMA.

"The selection was made in favor of Alcatel after a thorough analysis of the service offered and in realization of the fact that Alcatel offered the NSCMA the best value for money, flexibility and the security of working with a familiar and reliable marine maintenance service provider," said Bob Greenfield, chairman of the NSCMA."

"Alcatel has a proven and long-established experience of undersea networks as the recognized world leader in this domain," said Jean Godeluck, president of Alcatel's submarine network activities. "In addition, it has developed its own state-of-the-art fleet to both install and maintain submarine systems. This agreement is clearly a recognition of our skills in the maintenance field, which have been developed thanks to the professionalism and know-how of our dedicated crew and technicians on board."

Alcatel is in charge of supplying the vessels and the remote operation vehicles necessary to overhaul any damaged systems. It also provides a charting service to the customer to ensure their system documentation is updated at all times concerning the repairs done on their network. The maintenance cable vessels used by Alcatel have been specially designed to work in difficult areas such as the North Sea and have a successful track record in this field.

Alcatel's maintenance service covers the sea between Lands End, Ushant, the Faeroe Islands and Norway. This region needs a substantial, efficient maintenance service since there is a high volume of fishing activity there, so the risk of potential damage can be three to four times higher than anywhere else in the world.

Alcatel builds next generation networks, delivering integrated end-to-end voice and data networking solutions to established and new carriers, as well as enterprises and consumers worldwide. With 130,000 employees and sales of EURO 31 billion in 2000, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, http://www.alcatel.com