Deployment is scheduled to begin immediately with an expected commercial launch in the first half of year 2003. The contract for Ericsson's total CDMA2000 solution includes the following equipment and services: 1900 MHz compact Radio Base Stations; Base Station Controllers; Packet Core Network; Mobile Switching Centers; Home Location Registers; a suite of applications such as Pre-paid, Short Message Service and Voice Mail Service; and a full portfolio of services including training and network rollout.

"We are honored to be selected by RelTel to assist them in rolling out their nationwide CDMA2000 1X network," said Åke Persson, president of Ericsson Mobile CDMA Systems. "We look forward to working with RelTel to bring advanced wireless services to their customers throughout Nigeria."

Ericsson's total CDMA2000 1X portfolio is built upon Ericsson's global 3G platform for switching, radio access, IP, services and applications. Focused on providing sustainable value into the future, Ericsson's CDMA2000 1X total solution has been designed to provide operators like RelTel with an easy, cost-effective migration path to future evolutions of CDMA2000.

"As we continue to expand our network and bring advanced voice and data services to customers throughout Nigeria, it is important for us to partner with leading vendors like Ericsson," said Sir A. Okonkwo, chairman of Reliance Telecommunications Limited. "We believe their CDMA2000 solution and professional services will provide us with state-of-the-art technology and expertise that will allow us to quickly and cost-effectively deploy 3G services to our customers and meet on-demand capacity growth."