Starting the week with a couple news stories from Nokia Siemens. They're really booming in the international space.

First, news of their investment plans in India.

Nokia Siemens Networks to invest USD 100 million to strengthen its operations in India

New Delhi, India - July 02, 2007

Nokia Siemens Networks today announced its plans to invest USD 100 million in India over the next three years as a part of its commitment to develop a strong telecommunications environment in India. This is to better address and drive the growth of Indian mobile industry and to better serve its customers. This investment will include setting up a proposed telecommunication equipment manufacturing facility in Tamil Nadu for wireless network equipment, new offices across various cities, additional development of an existing R&D centre, and expanding the Global Networks Solution Centre.

The investment plans were announced by Simon Beresford-Wylie, CEO, Nokia Siemens Networks on the first day of his three day visit to India. This is his first visit to the country as head of the newly formed company. Said Beresford-Wylie, "The Indian telecommunications market is entering a next wave of growth; one that will see a rapid build out of mobile and broadband networks outside the major cities and delivery of a host of new services to consumers across the country. To address this growing local demand, and reduce the overall time to market of products and services to our operator customers, we are investing in strengthening our local presence and creating a strong ecosystem in India.”

The proposed facility aims to address the strong market demand in India and will manufacture high end equipment. Nokia Siemens Networks will also establish a network of suppliers with focus on increased localized sourcing. The construction work at the site will begin later this year and commercial production is expected to begin in 2008.

“Nokia Siemens Networks has experienced strong business success since the launch of its operations in India,” said Ashish Chowdhary, Head of India Sub-region, Nokia Siemens Networks. “With our extensive managed services capability and end to end product portfolio, we are committed to building a strong local telecommunication ecosystem in India to address and drive the growth of the Indian mobile industry.”

In India, Nokia Siemens Networks is the largest telecommunications equipment vendor* and the leader in managed services. A leading supplier to all the major GSM operators in the country, Nokia Siemens Networks serves its customers with a best-in-class portfolio, a strong presence in the growing services market, a powerful global R&D team, and a huge global installed base. Nokia Siemens Networks’ operations in India include Sales & Marketing, Research & Development, Manufacturing and Global Networks Operations Centre. Headquartered at Gurgaon, the company has presence in over 170 locations across the country.
*as reported by Voice & Data Top 100 Survey, India

About Nokia Siemens Networks
Nokia Siemens Networks is a leading global enabler of communications services. The company provides a complete, well-balanced product portfolio of mobile and fixed network infrastructure solutions and addresses the growing demand for services with 20,000 service professionals worldwide. The combined pro-forma net sales of €17.1 billion Euro in fiscal year 2006 make Nokia Siemens Networks one of the largest telecommunications infrastructure companies. Nokia Siemens Networks has operations in some 150 countries and is headquartered in Espoo, Finland. It combines Nokia’s Networks Business Group and the carrier related businesses of Siemens Communications.
www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

Nokia Siemens Networks wins GSM/GPRS/EDGE network contract with Telefónica O2 in Slovakia

Espoo, Finland – July 2, 2007

The new Slovakian mobile network operator, Telefónica O2, has selected Nokia Siemens Networks as the sole supplier of the mobile network that Telefónica O2 launched earlier this year. Nokia Siemens Networks’ end-to-end understanding ensures innovative and high quality technology that supports Telefónica O2’s future-proof strategy and investment.

“As Telefónica O2 has just recently launched mobile services in Slovakia’s competitive and well-established market, we needed to be sure that our network is of the highest quality and that our system supplier can provide a fast and efficient network rollout. Nokia Siemens Networks demonstrates great capabilities to do this, as it has also shown in the past during previous cooperation within our Group in other markets,” says Martin Škop, Chief Network Officer, Telefónica O2.

Under the frame agreement, Nokia Siemens Networks has provided a complete GSM/GPRS/EDGE radio and core network, including the MSC Server Solution for mobile softswitching and value added service platforms. The equipment delivery is complemented by services to install and optimize a test network, and provide core network implementation, care, and competence development services. The network is supported by the multitechnology, multivendor Nokia NetAct™ network and service management system.

“We are excited to work with Telefónica O2 in Slovakia and will do the utmost on our part to ensure that Telefónica O2 Slovakia is well positioned to start its business in this market,” says Richard Kitts, head of Telefonica O2 Europe business team at Nokia Siemens Networks. “We have been able to utilize the existing network infrastructure we have supplied to Telefónica O2 in the Czech Republic to maximize the synergy effects of cross-border operations.”

Nokia Siemens Networks is the indisputable leader in EDGE today with 120 commercial EDGE networks worldwide and is the initiator and driver of EDGE evolution standardization, bringing EDGE to a new level of performance with a smooth upgrade of existing networks. Nokia Siemens Networks is creating seamless user experiences in converging networks thanks to mobile softswitching and IMS for fixed and mobile. With over 150 customers for its mobile softswitching and over 80 live networks, Nokia Siemens Networks is clearly the most experienced mobile softswitching supplier worldwide. Nokia Siemens Nokia Services also boasts a broad business solution portfolio that gives operators the best tools to increase their efficiency and differentiate their offerings, with close to 20 years of experience in the field. We have optimized over 200 2G/3G commercial networks and delivered 400,000 training-days a year.

About Telefónica O2 Slovakia
Telefónica O2 Slovakia is a member of a powerful international group, Telefónica S.A, which operates in 23 countries and whose customer base includes more than 200 million clients worldwide. Telefónica currently ranks among the world’s most dynamic telecommunications companies with a strong position in Western Europe and Latin America. Telefónica O2 Slovakia entered the Slovak mobile operators’ market as a result of the decision of the selection committee of the Telecommunication Office of the Slovak Republic from August 2006. On February 2nd 2007 it successfully launched its services in Slovak Republic.

About Nokia Siemens Networks
Nokia Siemens Networks is a leading global enabler of communications services. The company provides a complete, well-balanced product portfolio of mobile and fixed network infrastructure solutions and addresses the growing demand for services with 20,000 service professionals worldwide. The combined pro-forma net sales of €17.1 billion in fiscal year 2006 make Nokia Siemens Networks one of the largest telecommunications infrastructure companies. Nokia Siemens Networks has operations in some 150 countries and is headquartered in Espoo, Finland. It combines Nokia’s Networks Business Group and the carrier related businesses of Siemens Communications.
www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com