Huawei's first commercial LTE/SAE will be available in June 2009: Ihab Ghattas

LTE subscriber base expected to reach 400-450Mn by 2015

Dubai, UAE -November 4, 2008: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd. ("Huawei"), a leader in providing next generation telecommunication solutions to operators around the world, today said that they will provide LTE/SAE infrastructure to mobile operators based on multi-standard base stations and their first commercial LTE/SAE network is expected to be ready by June 2009.

Speaking at SAMENA Telecommunications Council's 'Convergence to Jordan 2008' on 'Preparing for the future technology trends - LTE focus' Mr. Ihab Ghattas, Assistant President, Huawei Technologies Middle East said, "The rapid development and benefits of wireless technology has seen mobile broadband evolve from UMTS / HSPA/HSPA+ to LTE which offers more efficiency than other networks. Expectations are that by 2015 LTE subscriber base will reach 400-450 million generating revenues of almost EUR 150 billion."

According to ABI Research, nearly 300,000 LTE Base Transceiver Stations will be installed and network operators will invest a total of almost $18 billion in LTE capital infrastructure by 2014.

Added Mr. Ghattas, "LTE and SAE (System Architecture Evolution) are 3GPP (3rd Generation partnership projects) concepts defining long-term evolution for radio access technology and core network respectively but when enhanced they are no longer inseparable. LTE can be deployed by operators with heavy UMTS investments as a complement at hot spots as well as by operators who plan to directly deploy LTE on a wide scale."

Huawei is the main sponsor and participant of LTE research and standardization with more than two hundred contributions in LTE RAN in 2006 which occupies 7% of total contributions as well as being a member of NGMN.

Huawei is an active member of LSTI reflecting their commitment to contributing significantly to the development of HSPA, HSPA+ and LTE technologies. Huawei takes part in the IOT work to promote the LTE industry and has received high acclaim from the board of LTE/SAE Trial Initiative for its performance in global HSP and LTE fields.

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About Huawei Technologies
Huawei Technologies is a leader in providing next generation telecommunications networks, and now serves 35 of the world's top 50 operators, along with over one billion users worldwide. The company is committed to providing innovative and customized products, services and solutions to create long-term value and growth potential for its customers.

For more information, please visit www.huawei.com

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