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Press Release

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – March 5, 2008

Nokia Siemens Networks explains relevance of socio-economic connectivity findings for Africa at Science with Africa Conference in Ethiopia

Today, at the Science with Africa conference held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Nokia Siemens Networks explained how and why groundbreaking new connectivity findings are relevant for Africa. The conference, an initiative mandated by European Parliament in Lisbon reflecting EU-Africa Summit goals, gave Nokia Siemens Networks and other global telecommunications players the opportunity to demonstrate the valuable contribution that the public-private-partnerships are making to empower developing countries.

Shahzad Abid, Head of Marketing, Nokia Siemens Networks in Middle East & Africa commented: “Businesses and governments must make better use of their communications infrastructure to take full advantage of the economic and social benefits of ICT”. According to a new groundbreaking study, the Connectivity Scorecard *, even the world’s best connected countries are not exploiting communications technologies to their fullest potential and in many cases policy and regulatory activity designed to promote connectivity is not having the impact intended. The study’s results indicate an opportunity for countries to add hundreds of billions of dollars in economic benefit by rethinking how they measure and enable connectivity, according to the study authors. The study was conducted under direction of Professor Leonard Waverman at the London Business School, and commissioned by Nokia Siemens Networks.

“This study is a call to arms for government and businesses. In a period of economic uncertainty there are great benefits to be gained from the effective use of communications infrastructure. And as we move toward the vision of five billion people connected by 2015, policy makers and business leaders must simultaneously encourage the deployment of infrastructure and invest in the complementary assets – people – that will enable this infrastructure to be used to its maximum potential,” adds Abid

In Africa, the key to future growth and increased connectivity is to reach the rural population, as approximately 70% of Africa’s population lives in villages. Providing communications services in rural areas calls for innovation, as income levels are significantly lower than those in urban areas. Service providers need to be prepared to make mobile connectivity available at affordable prices. The most promising business approach to connect remote villages is partnering with a local entrepreneur familiar with potential customers and who can run the local operations.

Michael Maltusch, Ethiopia Country Director of Nokia Siemens Networks comments: “The Nokia Siemens Networks Village Connection, which is currently being trialed in Tanzania, is an innovative solution that helps service providers to overcome technical and commercial challenges and be the first to develop a customer base in remote villages. The solution reduces the operator’s cost CAPEX (capital expenditure) by introducing an autonomous village site with local traffic handling capability. It also minimizes total OPEX (operational expenditure) as the village entrepreneur handles the customer care and provides the network service.”

Abid concludes: “It has been found from previous studies that on average a 10% increase in mobile penetration increases a countries GDP by 0.6% However, motivating people to access ICT tools alone is not enough. Concurrently, their ability to use mobile phones and computers needs to be addressed. In developing countries such as many nations in Africa, this requires an investment in education that will develop skills and deliver workforce training opportunities. Such initiatives will enable as many people as possible to participate fully in a technology-driven economy.”

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. Nokia Siemens Networks is one of the largest telecommunications infrastructure companies with operations in 150 countries. The company is headquartered in Espoo, Finland.

www.nokiasiemensnetworks.com

In the Middle East and Africa region, Nokia Siemens Networks operates with a workforce of 4000 employees across 44 countries, of which 3000 are service professionals, with key locations in Dubai, Cairo, Riyadh, Islamabad and Pretoria. Nokia Siemens Networks collaborates with more than 130 operators in the fixed and mobile business in the region.

The “with” in Science with Africa aims to deliberately highlight the inclusion of African scientists in order to move from a donor-recipient relationship to one of equal and proactive partnerships. The conference was discussed in Lisbon at a hearing of the European Parliament on 29 November 2007 and it was decided that it would be a mechanism to improve the access of Africa based institutions to international collaborative R&D projects. Mr. Abdoulie Janneh, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa chaired the hearing and he pointed out the importance of African States scaling-up their investments in science and technology in order to accelerate their economic and social development and to achieve Millenium Development Goals.

Nokia Siemens Networks

Nada Chammas

External Communications

+971 50 4508559

nada.chammas@nsn.com

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Mandy Williams

Public Relations

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mandyw@magna-carta.co.za

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