Paris and Seoul, October 30, 2006 : Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) and Samsung Electronics (Seoul KSE: 005930 and London GDR: SMSN) today announced that they have signed an agreement to develop mobile handsets compatible with the evolution of the DVB-H standard in the S-Band. This is part of Alcatel's Unlimited Mobile TV solution.

Alcatel  and  Samsung will collaborate on interoperability testing in order to  deliver  a seamless end-to-end solution to operators and a high quality Mobile   TV   service   to  end-users.  Both  companies  will  support  the standardization process of this solution in the DVB Forum undertaken in the DVB-SSP  (Satellite  Services  for Portable devices) Ad-Hoc Group, and join forces  to  market their combined solution. In a first step, this agreement covers Europe, where the S-band spectrum is available today.

The solution in the S-Band allows complete territory coverage for Mobile TV at  the scale of a country or even a continent, including inside buildings. Besides,  this solution is compatible with DVB-H in UHF, which also enables the development of dual-mode UHF/ S-Band Mobile TV terminals.

"Samsung  values  its  new  cooperation  with  Alcatel  for handsets in the S-Band,  as it opens the door to a significant new business opportunity for Samsung  in  Europe,"  stated  Kwang  Suk  Hyun,  Senior  Vice President of Samsung. "S-Band is a solution of choice in Europe for Mobile TV deployment and Samsung intends to be a major player in this business."

"We  welcome  Samsung  as a new key stakeholder in the S-Band ecosystem for broadcast Mobile TV, as they enjoy a track record in fast Mobile TV handset development and go-to-market capability," added Olivier Coste, President of Alcatel's mobile broadcast activities. "Samsung's endorsement of our hybrid mobile  TV  solution  in the S-Band also demonstrates the attractiveness of this option for the Mobile TV industry at large."
 

About Alcatel
Alcatel  provides  communications  solutions to telecommunication carriers, Internet  service providers and enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video  applications  to  their  customers  or employees. Alcatel brings its leading  position  in fixed and mobile broadband networks, applications and services, to help its partners and customers build a user-centric broadband world.  With  sales  of  EURO  13.1  billion  and 58,000 employees in 2005, Alcatel  operates  in  more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet: http://www.alcatel.com

About Alcatel's "Unlimited Mobile TV" solution
The  goal of Alcatel's "Unlimited Mobile TV" solution is to make television available  on  mobile  phones  throughout  rural and urban areas, including indoors,  with  a  wide  range  of  programming options and excellent image quality,  regardless  of  the number of viewers simultaneously watching the same  program.  This universal broadcast coverage is possible thanks to the unique   combination   of   a   high-power   geo-stationary  satellite  for cost-effective  nationwide  coverage  and a network of low power repeaters, co-located with mobile base stations, to provide urban and indoor coverage. This  innovative  solution uses an evolution of the DVB-H standard in the 2 GHz  band  (S-Band),  a  telecom  frequency  band  between 2.17 and 2.2 GHz associated  with  satellite  usage,  which is adjacent to the 3G/UMTS band. This  30MHz  band  is  currently  available  all  across  Europe.  For more information: www.alcatel.com/mobiletv