Ericsson, Stratex In Africa

Communications Today, April 3, 2003

Africa's growth as a target market for wireless infrastructure vendors shows in Ericsson's [Nasdaq: ERICY] and Stratex Networks' [Nasdaq: STXN] latest contracts. Stratex will upgrade and expand MTN Nigeria Communications' existing wireless networks under a $9 million contract. Stratex (San Jose, Calif.), formerly known as Digital Microwave Corp., will provide its PDH Dart and XP4 digital microwave radios for wireless access in the greater Lagos area, and will install its Altium products in the 7- and 8-GHz bands for the expansion and duplication of the wireless network between Lagos, Port Harcourt and Abuja in Nigeria.

Also in Nigeria, Ericsson will provide nationwide CDMA2000 1X infrastructure for Reliance Telecommunications under a $145 million contract, with service launch expected before July this year. Ericsson is supplying its 1900 MHz compact radio base stations; base station controllers; packet core network; mobile switching centers; home location registers; a suite of applications such as prepaid, SMS, and voice mail; and services including training and network rollout.

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