Press Releases

Russia’s GSM Operator Megafon Expands Deployment Of Alvarion Cellular Feeding System

Megafon Using WALKair™ In 12 Cellular Networks So Far  
 
Tel – Aviv, Israel, April 24, 2003 – Alvarion Ltd. (NASDAQ: ALVR), a leading provider of Broadband Wireless solutions, today announced that Megafon, a Russian GSM cellular operator, has placed a follow-on order for additional WALKair™ Broadband Wireless Point-to-Multipoint cellular feeding solution. The WALKair™ system in the 10.5 GHz frequency bands will be installed as part of the GSM infrastructure, which will be deployed for Megafon in Northern Russia and Siberia.

Megafon is a joint project of Sonera, Telia, Telecominvest and CT-Mobile. The only company with a pan-Russian GSM license, Megafon is investing heavily to build a state-of-the-art GSM network across Russia. In just two years, it has extended services to 5 of 7 Federal Districts, and built a subscriber base of more than 3,6 million customers.

In 2001 (the initial setup of the GSM network) and 2002 (extension throughout the Ural region) Alvarion’s WALKair™ fixed wireless technology was used to provide reliable and cost-effective cellular feeding services. In certain areas, point to multipoint broadband wireless is an attractive and cost effective cellular feeding alternative to more expensive point-to-point or leased line solutions. The point-to-multipoint feeding network can also be utilized to bring operators additional revenues from fixed access services. Now, as a third network build out phase is launched to bring Megafon’s services to Siberia and Northern Russia, WALKair™ has been chosen once again as reliable and cost-effective cellular feeding services.

Commenting on the news, Alexey N. Nichiporenko, Deputy General Director of Megafon, said, “Our experience over the last two years has proven that Broadband Wireless Point-to-Multipoint is an ideal complementary technology for providing high capacity, reliable GSM network feeding. In Russia’s difficult terrain, Alvarion’s WALKair™ has been cost-effective to deploy, and has consistently lived up to our high performance expectations. As we expand our network, we are confident to rely once again on the best-in-class technologies of Alvarion.”

Tzvika Friedman, President & COO of Alvarion, added, “We are pleased that our advanced 10.5 GHz solution has performed so well for Megafon, and look forward to continued close cooperation during the next network build out phase. Megafon is a strong example of the many operators who recognize the power of fixed wireless technologies to complement their cellular networks. They are finding it extremely cost-effective to deploy our solutions instead of wireless Point-to-Point or leased lines for cellular feeding applications, and to launch revenue-generating access services. As the market leader for 10.5 GHz products, we are intensifying our activities in all the regions where the 10.5 GHz band is available, including India and Latin America.”

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About Megafon

OJSC “MegaFon” is the first All-Russian mobile operator in GSM 900/1800 standard. It was created in May 2002 as a result of renaming and changing the legal form of CJSC “North-West GSM” and its merger with CJSC “Sonic Duo” (Moscow), CJSC “Mobikom-Kavkaz”, CJSC “Mobikom-Center”, CJSC “Mobikom-Novosibirsk”, CJSC “Mobikom-Khabarovsk”, CJSC “Mobikom-Kirov”, OJSC “MCC-Povolzhye”, CJSC “Volzhsky GSM” and CJSC “Uralsky GSM”. The main shareholders of the company include OJSC “Telecominvest”, LLC “CT-Mobile”, Sonera (Finland) and Telia (Sweden). The licensed area of MegaFon covers 100% of the Russian territory with the population of 145 mln. people. At present the number of MegaFon’s subscribers is over 3,600,000.

About Alvarion

Alvarion is dedicated to delivering seamless wireless broadband networking infrastructure to carriers, ISPs and private network operators, in order to leverage their broadband opportunities into sustainable profits. Alvarion offers premier wireless broadband solutions for access in the last mile, backhauling connection to the backbone and private network connectivity. Featuring the industry's most extensive range of products and international support, Alvarion is a pioneering leader of the converged wireless broadband network. With over 1.5 million units deployed in 120 countries worldwide, Alvarion provides secure rich-media networks for business or residential Internet access, corporate VPNs, cellular base station feeding, community interconnection, public safety connectivity and extended Hotspots. Recently incorporated InnoWave's wideband access portfolio and expertise, Alvarion provides a complete wireless solution supporting a wide range of frequency bands, customer profiles and service types. For more information, visit Alvarion’s World Wide Web site at http://www.alvarion.com

This press release may contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on the current expectations or beliefs of Alvarion’s management and are subject to a number of factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements: inability to further identify, develop and achieve success for new products, services and technologies; increased competition and its effect on pricing, spending, third-party relationships and revenues; as well as the inability to establish and maintain relationships with commerce, advertising, marketing, and technology providers and other risks detailed from time to time in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

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