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Airspan Networks to Supply WipLL Wireless Access
Solutions for Major COMPARTEL Project in Colombia
Airspan’s second COMPARTEL project in last two years
BOCA RATON, Fla. – January 9, 2005 — Airspan Networks, Inc. (Nasdaq: AIRN), a leading
worldwide provider of WiMAX-based broadband wireless access networks and carrier class
Voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP) solutions, announced today that the Consortium Union
Temporal COLDECON (“COLDECON Consortium”) has chosen Airspan’s products for the
deployment of a large-scale broadband rural access project in Colombia.
Following an international competitive tender and bid process, the COLDECON Consortium has
signed an agreement with COMPARTEL, an executive branch of the Ministry of
Communications of Colombia, to deploy broadband connectivity to 2,224 schools and public
institutions in the northern part of the country. The network will use Airspan’s WipLL platform in
various frequency bands in combination with VSAT technologies for the access and backhaul
portions of the project. Airspan’s supply agreement with COLDECON Consortium is expected
to generate more than $2.5 million of revenues over the next two years, and may be increased if
the Consortium is asked by COMPARTEL in 2006 to expand the network.
The project is being carried out under a COMPARTEL five-year initiative to provide broadband
telecommunications access to public institutions in Colombia. The project involves providing
high-speed Internet service together with support and personal computers for local
municipalities, schools and hospitals.
Airspan anticipates that approximately half of the sites in the project will be served by WipLL
base stations and customer premise equipment, which will be installed over the next 20 months,
the first installations to take place in March 2006. The equipment will operate in the 900MHz
and 5.8GHz frequencies. The VSAT equipment will be used to backhaul the traffic from most of
the WipLL sites and as a last-mile acc