ZTE Corporation, the fastest growing global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, has been selected by Maroc~Connect, part of Moroccan business group ONA, to deploy an All-IP CDMA2000 solution for a nationwide telecoms network. The new network will be developed over the next three years to offer enhanced voice, data and other services.

The Moroccan operator awarded ZTE the contract following discussions and a series of studies and tests which confirmed ZTE´s ability to better rival competitor offerings.

"ZTE has provided us with a proven and innovative high-performance end-to-end solution that will give us competitive advantage and position us well within the Moroccan market," said Mr Karim Zaz, Chief Executive Officer, Maroc~Connect.  "Not only have we chosen a supplier who can offer us the state-of-art solutions we need, but in ZTE we have found a global partner for our future development."

"We are motivated to support such an ambitious young operator which has opted for such an innovative, high-performance end-to-end solution. We believe that Maroc~Connect will become one of the leading operators, not only in Morocco but in all the MENA region due to its clear market vision, an eagerness to adopt the most innovative technologies and the strong support of the ONA group," said Mr Chang Xiaowei, General Manager, ZTE Morocco.

ZTE will supply Maroc~Connect with an ALL-IP CDMA2000 voice and EV-DO network equipment, base station subsystems (BSS), core network equipment including MSCe/MGW/HLRe and an SMS Platform. The contract will be executed in several phases and network scalability will be ensured, providing the means to upgrade smoothly towards full mobility and push-to-talk functionality provided by ZTE´s CDMA2000-based GoTa (Global Open Trunking Architecture). ZTE will also provide its CDMA2000 1X voice and data handsets, GoTa handsets, and EV-DO data cards.

ZTE´s innovative ALL-IP CDMA 2000 technologies are currently deployed in more than 60 countries by over 100 operators with a global capacity of more than 40 million lines. ZTE is also a major Asian producer of handsets and recently announced an agreement to supply 3G handsets to the Hutchison-owned 3G network in the UK.

About Maroc~Connect

ONA (Omnium of North Africa) subsidiary Maroc Connect has won Morocco´s third fixed-line licence, paying around MAD 306 million (EUR 27.5 million), reports the country´s telecom regulator, ANRT. Maroc Connect is one of Morocco´s main ISPs. Its new licence includes limited mobility services within an up to 35 km diameter. Maroc Connect must invest MDH 1 billion in the first year. Egypt´s Orascom also bid for the licence. ANRT plans to liberalise the telecoms sector entirely by 2008. The body expects there to be over three million fixed lines, seven million new mobile phone accounts and 500,000 new internet users by 2015. It expects mobile and fixed networks to generate MAD 20 billion and MAD 15 billion of revenue in the same period.

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Shank Ni         
ZTE Corporation               
Tel: +86 755 2677 5216              
Email: ni.haiyang@zte.com.cn