PARIS, July 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alcatel (NYSE: ALA; Paris: CGEP.PA) today announced that its Maersk Defender cable ship is about to start laying a regional submarine cable network for Kodiak Kenai Cable Company -- a subsidiary of the Alaskan Old Harbor Native Corporation -- in Seward, Alaska. The turnkey deployment of the new Kodiak Kenai Fiber Link (KKFL) will provide the first fiber optic connections from Anchorage and Seward to communities on the Kenai Peninsula and Kodiak Island, serving the communications requirements of approximately 60,000 citizens as well as for the Alaska Aerospace Development Corporation Launch Complex on Kodiak Island. Designed to provide an ultimate capacity of about 1 Tbit/s, the KKFL will stretch more than 900 km with landing points in Anchorage, Homer and Kenai, Mill Bay and Narrow Cape. The project completion is scheduled by December 2006. The high-speed network connectivity and greater capacity offered by KKFL will help open up new economic development and enhance existing activities, such as providing improved access for research and education, as well as enabling advanced telemedicine applications. Kodiak Kenai Cable Company is working with local and long distance exchange carriers to provide access to broadband capacity for voice, Internet and other data services, including Ethernet-based services. "This achievement will enable us to give access to new, advanced services to a larger number of residential and business users, while enhancing the security and quality of existing services," said Walt Ebell, CEO of Kodiak Kenai Cable Company. "Alcatel's outstanding expertise in optical networks, coupled with a top offering of professional services, was the key factor in our choice." "With KKFL, Kodiak Kenai Cable Company is re-shaping the regional communications infrastructure bringing new network capacity and reliability to support the community development," said Jean Godeluck, President of Alcatel's submarine network activity. "This new achievement confirms Alcatel's commitment to be the partner of choice for submarine network deployments, following our selection and successful completion of most of the regional submarine projects recently launched." Alcatel will deploy its well-proven unrepeatered submarine cable and terminal technology to provide secure and reliable transmission capacity together with its 1677 SL SONET multiplexer equipment to provide flexible connectivity at the network's landing stations. Future capacity expansions can be implemented using dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) to meet future traffic demands in a scalable manner. Alcatel is also providing a comprehensive set of services including terrestrial and marine installation, and network commissioning. About Kodiak Kenai Cable Company KKCC was formed by Old Harbor Native Corporation and Ouzinkie Native Corporation for the purposes of constructing and operating advanced tele- communications facilities for use by service providers. KKCC will operate as a carriers' carrier, offering broadband capacity to local and long distance exchange carriers for telephone, Internet and other data services. 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/ DATASOURCE: Alcatel CONTACT: press, Regine Coqueran, +33-0-1-40-76-49-24, or , or Mark Burnworth, +33-0-1-40-76-50-84, or , or investor relations, Pascal Bantegnie, +33-0-1-40-76-52-20, or , or Nicolas Leyssieux, +33-0-1-40-76-37-32, or , or Maria Alcon, +33-0-1-40-76-15-17, or , or Charlotte Laurent- Ottomane, +1-703-668-7016, or , all of Alcatel Web site: http://www.alcatel.com/

Copyright