MTC Touch Upgrades Network and Launches Data Services with Motorola

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec. 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Motorola, Inc. and MTC Touch, in collaboration with the Lebanese Ministry of Telecommunications, announced today the upgrading of the MIC2 network, operated by MTC, to offer new services to its growing customer base. The announcement came during a press conference held at the Movenpick Hotel in Beirut under the auspices of His Excellency Mr. Marwan Hamadeh, Minister of Telecommunications of Lebanon.

Commenting on the announcement, Roula Abou Daher, chief technical officer, MTC Touch, said: "We have already launched prepaid SMS roaming services for Lebanon-based customers while they are visiting Saudi Arabia, and we're about to make the service available in other countries in the very near future."

MTC Touch will provide its customers with a service package to access their SMS, MMS, and data services via their mobile phones with a Motorola Global Applications Management Architecture (GAMA) solution which seamlessly integrates end-user data applications and MTC Touch billing and messaging platforms.

Abu Daher continued, "I would like to thank the Ministry of Telecommunications for its collaboration and its recognition of the urgent need to upgrade the network, thus providing us with the relevant investment to realize this enhancement. I would also like to confirm that the development plans related to this expansion have been carried out as per our original timetable."

"MTC Touch will be able to better serve its existing customers through the deployment of the Motorola solution and services. This will also enable us to attract new users who may want to send and receive messages, images and video, and access email and the Internet while abroad. In addition, visitors to Lebanon will now be able to use wireless and mobile email solutions, web browsing or other data services they have subscribed to in their home country and thereby to stay connected when roaming on the MTC Touch network," she added.

"Deployment of services that customers really want -- such as MTC Touch's new roaming SMS, MMS, email and Web connectivity for pre-paid and post-paid subscribers -- is one of the key ways that operators including the MTC Group enhance end-user experiences in the increasingly competitive Middle East telecoms sector. The Motorola GAMA solution highlights our ability to enable the region's operators to satisfy customers and meet their business objectives," said Ali Amer, senior director of sales for Motorola Networks & Enterprise in the Middle East, North Africa and Pakistan.

A portion of the revenue on this contract was recognized by Motorola in the third quarter of 2006.

About MTC

MTC is the pioneer of mobile telecommunications in the Middle East and now a major player on the African continent. We began life in 1983 in Kuwait as the region's first mobile operator, and since the initiation of our "3x3x3" expansion strategy in 2002, we have expanded rapidly. As a leading mobile and data services operator in 6 Middle Eastern and 14 sub-Saharan African countries with 10,000 employees, we provide a comprehensive range of mobile voice and data services to over 25 million individual and business customers.

We operate in Kuwait and Bahrain as mtc-vodafone, in Jordan as Fastlink, in Iraq as mtc atheer, in Lebanon as mtc touch, in Sudan as Mobitel and in 14 sub-Saharan countries in Africa as Celtel: Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Malawi, Madagascar, Niger, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Nigeria.

Listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (Code; Tele), MTC's market capitalization exceeded US $14 billion as of October 1st 2006. For more visit: http://www.mtctelecom.com/ , http://www.mtctouch.com.lb/ .

About Motorola

Motorola is known around the world for innovation and leadership in wireless and broadband communications. Inspired by our vision of Seamless Mobility, the people of Motorola are committed to helping you get and stay connected simply and seamlessly to the people, information, and entertainment that you want and need. We do this by designing and delivering "must have" products, "must do" experiences and powerful networks -- along with a full complement of support services. A Fortune 100 company with global presence and impact, Motorola had sales of US $35.3 billion in 2005. For more information about our company, our people and our innovations, please visit http://www.motorola.com/ .

MOTOROLA and the stylized M Logo are registered in the US Patent & Trademark Office. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners.