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MENA NewsletterIssue 2 | August 2009

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Profitability continues in Aastra Q2 results

AastraLink Pro 160™ set tolaunch in October

Upgrade Ericsson MD110 Campaign

WELCOMEThe first issue of our newsletter received an overwhelming pos i t i ve feedback f rom our channel partners and resellers. If you have more people in your organization or from your resellers who would like to receive this newsletter directly, then please send

a registration email with the recipient’s Name, E-mail address and Company Name to marketing-mena@aastra.com.com, and we will add them to the distribution list.

Our main focus in the summer period is the UPGRADE ERICSSON MD110 campaign, which we are running until end of October. We hope you will be able to maximize not only your upgrade business, but also associated add-on business.

Dr. Roger HageVP Marketing and Business DevelopmentAastra Telecom Middle East & North Africa.

Turbulent economies have not prevented Aastra from reporting profits in its second quarter financial results. In its latest figures, Aastra reported an increase of its gross profit year-on-year, from 42.5 per cent in 2008 to 45.6 per cent in the three months to the end of June 2009. Net income for the reporting period totals $5.5 million (£3.3 million), an increase of more than 160 per cent over the $2.1 million achieved in the same period of 2008.

For investors, this equates to net earnings of $0.40 per share - up from $0.13 in the previous year. The figures follow good first-quarter performance, when gross margins stood still higher at around 48 per cent.

Q2 2009 was Aastra’s 45th consecutive positive quarter. More>

8Canalys has now published its analysis of the EMEA enterprise device market for 2008 called “EMEA enterprise device market and forecasts”, published in June 2009 in the Unified Communications Analysis Worldwide service. Aastra ranked first

in EMEA for cordless phones (DECT & Wi-Fi) with a total market share of approx. 23%.

For more information:

More>

Profitability continues in Aastra Q2 results

Aastra in #1 position for Cordless telephones in EMEA

NOISE - Formula 1 Competition

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Competitor News Update

Upgrade Ericsson MD110 Campaign

Avaya to purchase Nortel’s enterprise solutions business?Note: The acquisition cannot be finalized before the auction date in September and will be subject to the anti-trust authorities’ approval. This deal opens a long window of uncertainty for Nortel customers and channels, and would be a time consuming challenge for Avaya to integrate.More> More Here>

Enterprise VoIP Growth to Slow in 2009Dell’Oro Group, the trusted source for market information about the networking and telecommunications industries, reported that IP lines for the PBX market are forecasted to decline for the first time ever in 2009. Notwithstanding, VoIP penetration will continue to grow this year, albeit at a slower pace compared to the previous years.

“For 2009, we anticipate a degree of vendor volatility

that will cause many customers to stay on the sidelines for a longer period of time than we would expect if downward pressure was coming only from the weakened economy,” commented Alan Weckel, Director at Dell’Oro Group. “Also, as customers look to alleviate budget constraints, IP line growth will slow in the short term, putting additional downward pressure on the market. In the current environment, some customers will hold on to existing analog and digital lines for a longer period of time,” Weckel added.

According to the report, Cisco, Avaya and Nortel had the most IP line shipments in the quarter. The report also revealed that despite VoIP transforming the industry for over a decade, the IP line shipments for the eight largest vendors in the market, namely Aastra, Alcatel-Lucent, Avaya, Cisco, Mitel, NEC, Nortel and Siemens averaged only 49 percent of total line shipments in the quarter. More>

This campaign is valid internally from now on until October 31, 2009. The promise made is that we are discounting the upgrade from BC9 upwards to MX-ONE TSW for up to 1000 ports per customer. The level of discount depends very much on how much they add-on simultaneously, and has to be calculated by Aastra for every case separately. We can give quick calculations within 48h. This discount is to be transparently forwarded to the end-customer.

We are discounting the SW part of the upgrade up to a max. of 1000 ports to virtually 0. The residual price - which can only be calculated by Aastra - refers to the HW deliverables of that upgrade.

Examples:Upgrade only 1000 portsLet’s assume the normal price = 5,000 EURAs there is no add-on order accompanying this upgrade, we can only discount the SW part completely.A calculation might reveal a discounted price of 1,000 EUR (which is equivalent to 80% discount)

Upgrade 1000 ports + Add-onLet’s assume the normal price = 5,000 + 5,000 (add-on) = 10,000 EURAs there is an add-on order accompanying this upgrade, we can discount further than in the first example.A calculation might reveal a discounted price of 5,000 EUR (which is equivalent to 50% overall discount or 100% discount on the upgrade part)

Upgrade 2000 ports + Add-onLet’s assume the normal price = 10,000 + 10,000 (add-on) = 20,000 EURBecause of the add-on order, we can discount the SW of more than 1,000 ports. A calculation might reveal a discounted price of 11,000 EUR (which is equivalent to 45% overall or a 90% discount on the upgrade part)

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Disclaimer: Only discounts manually calculated by Aastra are valid. There is no general formula for resellers to estimate the level of discount.

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We are happy to announce that Mr. Ahmet Altinova has joined our team in Turkey. Ahmet will be responsible for technical training for the whole Middle East and North African region and will be based in Istanbul. Ahmet brings with him several years of experience in product management and services related to the former Ericsson products.

AastraLink Pro 160 is an all-in one SIP based small Office IP-PBX for up to 50 users sold in North America. It is currently being tested by selected partners awaiting type approval in the following countries: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Jordan and Turkey. The AastraLink Pro can be desk mounted, wall mounted or 19” rack mounted. It supports 6 analogue trunk lines (FXO) and 10 SIP trunks, 2 analogue phones or fax (FXS) and up to 50 Aastra SIP phones (extensions). There are no licenses for SIP extensions or SIP trunks. All value-added functions are available from the start, such as:

Networking (up to 10 AastraLinks)• Voicemail• Visual voicemail (XML application on the • screen of the phones)CTI (Web based access to corporate & private • directory and phone settings, click to dial)Auto-attendant• CDR• Voicemail-2-Email (UM)• Parallel ring• Key Telephone System Emulation mode • (shared line appearance)Paging (incl. external PA interface)• Dial-in conference bridge• Push-button & relay connector control•

The major differentiator of the AastraLink Pro is that it is extremely easy to install and provision (uses automatic XML provisioning on the phones) for a SIP based IT/Telecom system.

The following terminals are available with the AastraLink Pro in the MENA region:

SIP phones: 6730i, 6731i, 6751i, 6753i, 6755i, • 6757iKey expansion Modules: M670i (536M), M675i • (560M)Cordless units: MBU400 for up to 8 cordless • handsets (to be introduced later in December)

The commercial startup package will include 1 x AastraLink Pro + 3 x 6730i + 1 x 6757i phones for an aggressive price.

The requirements to sell the AastraLink Pro are:√ Secured the homologation / type approval in

your country√ Ordered a reference unit√ Passed the technical test

Technical training for 1st tier partners is being offered throughout the months of July / August / September in Dubai and Istanbul. Resellers will receive the training either via computer-based system (online or off-line) or via the distributor (1st tier partners).

AASTRA MENA strengthens its team

AastraLinkPro 160™ setto launch inOctober

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IMPORTANT NOTE: The AastraLink Pro160™ and the 67xi SIP phones cannot be sold or re-exported to embargo countries like: Iran, Syria and Sudan.

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New 673x™ SIP terminals

New wireless headset support for 67xi SIP phones

Designed to deliver enterprise-grade advanced features and performance normally found at higher price-points, the Model 6730i and Model 6731i SIP phones share the same powerful, open-standards firmware design found on all Aastra 67xi SIP telephones (formally the 5xi series telephones).

Offering up to 6 lines with call display, full duplex

speakerphone with excellent voice quality, intercom, paging and auto answer features, as well as XML browser capabilities; these SIP phones are ideally suited for regular telephone usage in small and large business environments as well as enterprise and home-based applications.

The difference between the 6730i and 6731i is that the 6731i has additionally a built-in 2-port Ethernet switch and Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) capabilities, features missing in the basic model 6730i.

The approximate end user prices are as follows:

Aastra 6730i incl. EU Power supply = 108 USDAastra 6731i w/o Power supply = 131 USD

The 673xi phones are orderable with the AastraLink Pro and will also be made available for the MX-ONE TS 3.2 in the near future.

The Aastra DHSG Cable kit is intended for the 6753i, 6755i and 6757i Phones. This cable kit allows the use of Electronic Hook Switch (EHS) compatible wireless headsets with the phone models indicated above. Users can now answer/end calls while away from the phone and without the need for a motorized Handset Lifters.

Aastra recommends the following EHS compatible headsets for this solution:

Please note that models listed above require a separate DHSG cable or adapter to be provided by the headset vendor. Please contact your headset vendor for additional details. Use of non-recommended DHSG headsets is at the customer’s own discretion. DHSG cable can not be used in conjunction with an Aastra expansion module. Phones require software release 2.4 or higher.

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A sturgeon fish lays millions of eggs, quietly…A chicken makes a lot of noise when laying a single egg!!A rooster makes more noise without even laying one egg!!!!

If you have a story*, let us make maximum noise out of it.

*A recently won deal, reference customer installation, customer success story…

At the partner event we announced the competition for all 1st tier or 2nd tier resellers (all those who sell to end customers): The reseller who collects maximum Noise Points (np)* during 2009 will win a 3-day Main Grand Stand F1 ticket including Transportation and Hotel in Abu Dhabi in Fall 2010.

*How to collect noise points?

One noise point (np) can be collected by submitting to Aastra for publication:

• An External communication (ex. Order/won deal) with explicit customer permission, or • A customer reference / success story with explicit customer permission

We will help you to write the press release, which has to be published by our PR agency (PR leaders). We will also edit and layout the customer success story and produce/publish it.

All you need to do is submit the story to marketing-mena@aastra.com & get the customer approval.Good luck in NOISE generation.

Our Premium Partner for Saudi Arabia (Saudi Ericsson Communications Co. Ltd.) won the deal to equip Saudi Oger with an MX-ONE Telephony Server and SIP terminals for 1000 ports.

Saudi Oger is the main contractor for the new Noura University (which will be one of the top level universities in the region and an opportunity for further 10,000 VoIP ports). They needed to equip their project administration office building with an IP-PBX. Normally Saudi Oger uses Cisco for their

networking as they have a sister company, which is a Cisco gold partner. But in this case our channel partner was able to win this green field installation against one of the strongest competitors in VoIP opportunities.

NOISE Formula 1 Competition

Saudi Oger deploys a pureSIP-based IP Telephony System from Aastra

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Aastra MENA partner & authorized reseller eventAastra MENA, held its first Partner & Reseller event under the unified “Aastra” brand following its latest acquisition of Ericsson’s Enterprise business last year.

The 2-day event held in Dubai on May 5-6 was visited by more than 60 delegates from all over the region and was opened by Mr. Hugh Scholaert, Regional Group President of Aastra. One of the highlights of the event was the live video conferencing with Aastra’s co-CEO Tony Shen, who addressed the partners from his office desk in Toronto using Aastra’s latest Virtual Presence (ViPr) technology. This allowed the delegates to ask direct questions to Tony, as if he were present in the same room.

Other event highlights included:

• Presentation of the AastraLink Pro 160 (to be launched later this year)

• Sneak Preview into the Aastra 5000 and the NPI process

• Presentation of the No-none sense Guide to Selling Contact Centers

• The HP-ProCurve Alliance and how our partners can profit

• The use a voting system that allowed the

partners to give us valuable feedback in real-time

We got overwhelming positive feedback, not only from our channel partners, but also from our new regional alliance partner HP-ProCurve as quoted from Mr. Carsten Bohlman, Alliance Manager Middle East in his email to us. Quote: ”I would like to thank you on behalf of HP for this great opportunity to speak to your channel partners, it was the best event I have seen since some while. Your people seem to be mature and have a good understanding of what they are doing.”

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events Sudan Police chooses Aastra Solidus eCare™ Contact Center technology to equip 13 Emergency Services Call Centers.

The deal was won by TAWASOL’s reseller UNITY in Sudan, who has already installed 3 systems so far.

Aastra equips Su-dan 999 Emer-gency Service Call Center in 13 states

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Aastra MENA 2008 best performing partnerThe 2008 Best Performing Partner Award of Aastra MENA went to KKE (Kiasa Kish Ertebatat), a premium 1st tier partner based in Dubai with a reseller network in UAE and Iran.

The award was handed out by Peter Hofman and Hugh Scholaert from Aastra to KKE’s CEO Mr. Farhad Mohammadi during the Partner Event.

This event calendar gives you an overview about the most important events taking place in the Middle East and North Africa and showing which ones Aastra or partners are participating in. It will be updated regularly.

Please send us any regional telecom / IT events you know of to marketing-mena@aastra.com

Event Calendar

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2009 Date Event Place ParticipatingAugust 11-13 ITCN Asia Karachi, PakistanSeptember Ramadan October 4 - 7 Algiers Telecom/DJAZ-

ITAlgiers, Algeria

7 - 11 CeBIT Bilişim Eurasia Istanbul, Turkey Ateksis18 - 22 Gitex Dubai, U.A.E. Aastra & KKE26-27 Call Center Istanbul Istanbul, Turkey Aastra

November 19 - 21 MedIT - Morocco Casablanca,Morocco

21 - 24 Iran Telecom Teheran, Iran KKEDecember 9 -10 MedIT - Tunis Tunis, Tunisia