[Ericsson to supply GMCC with capacity expansion to exceed 18 million subscribers.]

Ericsson and Guangdong Mobile Communications Co. Ltd. have signed a contract for the sixth expansion of GMCC's GSM network. Under the contract, Ericsson will provide GMCC with network infrastructure equipment, software and services valued at more than USD 630 million (SEK 5.4 billion). Upon completion of the expansion project early next year, the capacity of GMCC's dual band GSM 900/1800 network will exceed 18 million subscribers. This is the largest GSM expansion project in China to date. Under the contract, Ericsson will deliver R8 software (Release 8 of the Ericsson GSM system), designed to support the introduction of higher-bandwidth data and multimedia services and thereby the evolution of GSM to 3G and a wide range of wireless communications, information and entertainment services. Ericsson will also provide GMCC with its Enhanced Full Rate speech coder solution, which improves the voice quality of GSM, particularly for women and children's voices, which have higher frequencies than men's. "Guangdong province has some of the most advanced telecommunications networks in China," says Stephen Yeung, Executive Vice President of Ericsson (China) Co. Ltd. "We are glad that GMCC has again shown its confidence and trust in Ericsson as a strategic business partner. With Ericsson's leading position in, for example, WAP and GPRS technologies, I believe Ericsson will have a continuous co-operation with GMCC in developing their mobile Internet network." Equipment will be supplied by Ericsson's largest joint venture in China, Nanjing Ericsson Communications Company Ltd. Deliveries will commence in April 2000 and continue throughout the rest of the year. Ericsson first established its business relationship with GMCC in 1987, with the first contract for analogue TACS mobile network equipment. Since then, Ericsson has co-operated with GMCC very closely in the building up of the mobile network in Guangdong.

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