Alcatel Acquires Astral Point; Announces Overseas Ventures

DALLAS, April 8 -- Alcatel has completed its acquisition in shares of Astral Point Communications Inc., a privately held company in Chelmsford, Mass., that develops SONET technologies. Astral Point's ON 5000 and ON 7000 products, which have been renamed the Alcatel 1675 Edge Gateway and the Alcatel 1677 SONET Link, respectively, are now part of Alcatel's portfolio. Through this acquisition, Astral Point has joined Alcatel USA.

Alcatel also announced its following activities overseas:

-- a multi-million dollar contract with Guangxi Telecom for a network, expected to be completed in the first half this year, covering 12 major cities in the province, including the capital city, Nanning, and the key industrial centers of Liuzhou and Guilin.

-- a joint venture with Russian telecom holding Svyazinvest to manufacture optical fiber in Russia. The new manufacturing facility is expected to start production and shipping products to the Russian market in 2003.

-- a 65-million euro contract with Indian telecommunications service provider BSNL to implement a major expansion and modernize BSNL's fixed network. Deliveries have begun; the contract is expected to be completed by September.

-- a five-year contract for more than 145 million euros for the supply of a turnkey GSM 900/1800 MHz wireless communication network in the Democratic Republic of Congo.