March 22 2004

International Telecommunications company, interWAVE Communications has secured a US$4.8 million  order for Commercial Facilitators Limited (CFL), a value-added telecom service provider in Nigeria, to expand their fleet of interWAVE's Cell-On-Wheels solutions.

interWAVE's Cell-On-Wheels solution can be installed in any number of vehicles, including trailers as well as trucks.

This deployment will consist of a mix of trailer and vehicle-based systems, which will feature the components of a permanent installation, namely a mast, a Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) for satellite transmission and satellite compression equipment. In addition, a microwave link, generator, battery backup and uninterrupted power supply will also be integrated.

With this, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) operators can now take their services to even more remote locations.

According to chief operations officer of interWAVE, Mr. Bill Carlin, "This order to expand CFL's current fleet of our Cell-On-Wheels solutions is in addition to a previous order for the same solutions we successful deployed for them last year,"

interWAVE Communications International, based in the Silicon Valley, brings communications to all corners of the world with a powerful combination of Global System for Mobile Communications and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) cellular networks, 802.11 integration with GSM network solutions and wireless broadband products that "reach the unreached."

This combination enables interWAVE to offer a common end-to-end cellular and wireless broadband transport network infrastructure that can deliver wireless services to the most challenging environments worldwide.

"Because Nigeria's population is so decentralized, CFL requires a mobile solution that can be easily deployed for semi-permanent or temporary coverage at a moments notice. Our Cell-On-Wheels solutions give operators the flexibility to address unforeseen coverage and capacity situations." He added

Chief executive officer of CFL, Mr. Niyi Oyedele, said that "As a result of the solutions interWAVE provided us for additional capacity during the All African Games, we decided to place an additional order, interWAVE's attention to detail in the overall design and integration provides us with a fully-functional, GSM-based network solution that can be rapidly deployed to any part of the country as subscriber demand dictates."

It would be recalled that interWAVE had earlier secured an order of approximately US$3 million for the provision of a GSM network supporting approximately 7,000 subscribers.

The Nigerian market represents a population of over 120 million with an estimated teledensity of about three telephones for 100 persons.