SaskTel International Awarded Multi-million Dollar Contract

October 14 1999

Randy Stephanson, Chief Financial Officer for SaskTel and Acting President of SaskTel International, today announced that SaskTel International has received an $8.2 million contract from the Tanzania Railway Corporation (TRC). Throughout the two-year project, SaskTel International will supply and install fiber optic cable and transmission equipment along a critical railway route between the major cities of Morogoro and Dodoma.

"This is the second phase of the TRC's network improvement program for the placement of trackside fiber from the port city of Dar es Salaam to the interior city of Mwanza, situated on Lake Victoria," said Stephanson. "The new fiber optic technology we will install will provide faster and more reliable communications along this busy portion of Tanzania's railway system. We're very pleased to be a part of the TRC's program and look forward to the benefits it will bring not only to SaskTel, but to the people of Tanzania."

The first phase of the project covered 202 kilometres of railway between Dar es Salaam and Morogora. The second phase supplies a total of 280 kilometers of fiber optics cable. The remaining portion of the program, which is scheduled for completion by the year 2005, will cover about 1200 kilometers.

Including today's announcement, SaskTel International is implementing three major turnkey projects in Tanzania. The other two projects will build rural digital telephone systems in the northern regions of the country, for the Tanzania Telecommunications Company Limited (TTCL). Over the past ten years, SaskTel International has acquired numerous stand-alone projects in East Africa totaling more than $25.6 million. Since 1986, SaskTel International has generated about $338 million in revenues for SaskTel.

SaskTel International, a wholly owned subsidiary of SaskTel Holding Corporation, markets SaskTel's extensive technological expertise to clients around the world. SaskTel International's web site is at .