Motorola Wins $260 Million CDMA Award From Pele-Phone; First to Deploy CDMA System in Israel

Business Wire, Dec 4, 1997

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 4, 1997-- Motorola, Inc.'s Cellular Infrastructure Group (CIG) has been awarded a $260 million contract from Pele-Phone Communications, Ltd., Israel's first cellular network operator, to deploy the first Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) digital cellular network throughout Israel. Pele-Phone will run in parallel its existing Narrowband Advanced Mobile Phone Service (NAMPS) analog cellular network with the CDMA system, also called cdmaOne(TM).

According to Benny Einhorn, general manager of Pele-Phone, "We believe CDMA is the only digital cellular technology which will support our aggressive network growth requirements and enable us to provide services, such as Short Message Service, which our customers demand."

"Motorola CIG has a long-standing relationship with Pele-Phone," said Adrian Nemcek, corporate vice president and general manager of Motorola CIG's European Cellular Infrastructure Group. "It is rewarding to have been chosen as the vendor to upgrade Pele-Phone's system. We look forward to this opportunity and to strengthening further our relationship with them."

Motorola CIG supplied an Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS) analog cellular network to Pele-Phone in 1986 and its current NAMPS analog system in 1994. The Motorola CIG CDMA system to be deployed with Pele-Phone will have the capacity to serve a total of 740,000 subscribers, significantly enhancing the current capacity of the operator's analog cellular system. According to recent industry studies, the Israeli cellular market has one of the highest traffic densities in the world with a much higher usage per subscriber per month compared to subscribers in the U.S.

Motorola CIG will install its digital SC(TM) series base transceiver system equipment -- which supports multiple air interfaces for versatile, modular growth -- along with its recently announced, open systems EMX(R) 5000 mobile switch.

Additionally, Pele-Phone will utilize the Short Message Service (SMS) which Motorola CIG has installed on all of the commercial CDMA systems it has deployed. The Motorola SMS system will enable subscribers to receive voice mail notification, digital pages, text messages, time stamp of messages, urgent message indication, voice mail message count and informational services such as stock quotes, sports scores, weather and traffic. Shipment of equipment is expected to begin this month with commercial service planned for 1998.

Motorola CIG is a CDMA pioneer, having launched the world's first commercial CDMA system in Hong Kong in 1995. Since then, it has launched more than 30 commercial CDMA systems worldwide. For more information on Motorola CIG, please visit our web site at http://www.mot.com/cig/

Motorola, Inc. is one of the world's leading providers of wireless communications, semiconductors, and advanced electronic systems, components and services. Motorola's 1996 sales were $28 billion.

CONTACT: Motorola CIG

Cheryl Beck-Ruff, 847/632-2775

QCEL01@email.mot.com