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Alvarion Receives Follow-On Order From
Connex, Romania's Largest Cellular Operator
To Date, Connex
(of the Vodafone Group) Has Purchased Alvarion
Equipment Totaling Over $6M To Bring Internet Access and
VPNs To
Business & Residential Customers
TEL - AVIV, Israel, May 14, 2002 - Alvarion Ltd. (NASDAQ: ALVR), a leading provider of Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) solutions, today announced the receipt of a follow-on order for additional fixed wireless equipment from Connex, the leader of mobile communications in Romania.
Including this order, Connex has now purchased Alvarion equipment worth a total of more than $6 million.
Connex is a trademark of MobiFon S.A., which is a member of the Vodafone Group, one of the world's leading telecommunication consortiums. Connex is the leader of the mobile communications market in Romania, providing GSM services to more than two million customers and covering 95% of the Romanian territory, as of the end of 2001. To increase the revenue potential of its cellular network assets, including rooftop rights and towers, know-how, brand recognition, etc., Connex reused them to deploy fixed wireless networks nationwide. With a nationwide license in the 3.5 GHz band, and using the license-free 2.4GHz bands, Connex currently uses its Alvarion networks to deliver an extensive range of IP-based broadband services such as Internet access and VPNs to thousands of customers, primarily businesses. In the near future, Connex plans to launch additional services over the Alvarion network.
Commenting on the news, Vishant Vora, CTO of Connex, said, "The deployment of our BWA networks was a logical next step which leverages on the success of our cellular business. Fixed wireless infrastructure is ideal for Romania, whose existing cable infrastructure is insufficient to support broadband services. In addition, the network enabled us to capitalize on many of the assets that we had established for our cellular services, including real estate throughout Romania and an extensive marketing and support organization. With these in place, it was easy and cost-effective to add complementary fixed wireless equipment and to begin offering IP-based services. The services that we provide over our Alvarion networks help us improve our competitive positioning. As a result, we are now expanding our BWA capabilities, and look forward to continued long-term cooperation with Alvarion."
Tzvika Friedman, President & COO of Alvarion, added, "In Romania, as in so many emerging markets, demand for broadband Internet access and data services is growing rapidly. Connex is a great example of a savvy service provider that uses a mix of technologies to cost-effectively meet the demands of a diverse user base. In establishing its BWA services, Connex took advantage of its existing cellular infrastructure and was able to achieve an extremely fast return-on-investment. We are pleased that our cutting-edge technologies have contributed to Connex's success, and look forward to continued future cooperation."
About Connex
Connex is the registered trademark of MobiFon S.A., the
company that launched the first GSM network in Romania, on April 15, 1997. At
that time, Connex introduced voice services based on the GSM system on the
Romanian market, but during its almost five years of existence, the company
permanently extended its range of services, including data and fax services, and
became an Internet service provider (ISP) with Xnet.
Connex, the only Romanian GSM operator that also offers Internet services, leads the Romanian market, with 2,003,600 GSM customers and over 150,000 Xnet users as of December 31, 2001.
The Connex network covers 95% of the Romanian population and Connex customers benefit from roaming in 90 countries/areas, through 208 operators. This spectacular evolution was possible due to Connex's main shareholders, which are two world leaders of the market of mobile communication services, namely, Telesystem International Wireless (TIW) and Vodafone. For more information, please visit http://www.connex.ro.
About Alvarion
Alvarion is a premier provider of solutions based on
Point-to-Multipoint (PMP) Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) used by telecom
carriers, service providers, and enterprises worldwide. Alvarion systems provide
Internet access and voice and data services in the last mile, cellular network
feeding, building-to-building and wireless local area network (LAN)
connectivity.
Alvarion offers the broadest range of BWA solutions by market segment and frequency band, designed to address all carriers' and service providers' business models. With its combined market experience, strong customer base, diversified distribution channels and field-proven deployments, Alvarion is a leading BWA pure play provider for every end user profile, from residential subscribers to business customers. For more information, please visit Alvarion's World Wide Web site at http://www.alvarion.com.
# # #
CONTACT:
Alvarion
Dafna
Gruber, CFO
+972-3-645 6252
dafna.gruber@alvarion.com
or
KCSA
Joseph
A. Mansi / Adam J. Rosen
+212-896-1205 / +212-896-1220
jmansi@kcsa.com
/ arosen@kcsa.com
or
Connex
Lidia
Solomon
+401
302 1870 / +40 93 250 666
lidia.solomon@connex.ro