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Alcatel announced today that R&D in 3G will constitute a significant portion of the 100 million US dollar R&D investment in China this year. In addition to R&D, investment in 3G infrastructure and application development in China will be increased by 45 million US dollars. This substantial commitment will further be used to strengthen its R&D, localization, and the 3G Reality Centre to support China's 3G development.

With the enhanced 3G capability, Alcatel Shanghai Bell, Alcatel's flagship Chinese company, will be able to firmly support operators in China as they prepare for 3G commercial deployments. The company's 3G Reality Centre in Shanghai, which provides a fully-featured and live 3G environment for testing innovative applications and services with local partners, will also be further enhanced to meet the fast growing demand for new mobile applications in China.

The 3G Reality Centre in Shanghai has already conducted laboratory and field trials on 3G infrastructure and new mobile applications in China. The Centre is also the heart of Alcatel's 3G Reality Centre network in Asia Pacific and is connected online to an equivalent Centre in Paris

"We firmly believe that China, an emerging hotbed of mobile applications, will take on a leading role in the field of 3G worldwide," stated Philippe Germond, President and chief operating officer of Alcatel. "Alcatel is fully committed to partnering with Chinese operators to develop successful 3G services, bringing our industry-leading solutions, world-class R&D, global experience and building this into a full long-term applications capability within China."

Alcatel established the Evolium SAS joint venture in 2000 together with Fujitsu, a leading UMTS solutions supplier to NTT DoCoMo in Japan, the world's pioneer in 3G commercial deployment. Alcatel's Evolium solutions are uniquely designed to suit the growth requirements of all mobile operators, incumbent and greenfield alike. They are well-proven and recognized in the industry for their strong capabilities of enabling rich portfolios of applications. By the end of 2002, more than 20 3G/UMTS pilot networks and pre-commercial deployments based on Evolium solutions were deployed worldwide, including Orange in France.