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New Generation Telecommunications Company (New Gen) of Amman, Jordan is to build a nationwide radio dispatch and cellular telecommunications network with financing from US Ex-Im Bank. Ex-Im’s US$49.4mn loan guarantee will finance the US-made telecoms network equipment from Motorola Inc and a number of other US exporters and suppliers.

“Jordan’s strategic location and important role in the Middle East make this a particularly noteworthy transaction for US exporters and the US government to support,” Ex-Im chairman Philip Merrill says. “This telecommunications network will bring economic and social benefits to the people of Jordan, while supporting export-dependent jobs at a dozen US companies.”

The US$85.4mn project, which includes an Integrated Digital Enhanced Network, or iDEN, supplied by Motorola, will be the company’s first Middle Eastern network outside of Israel and is to be a model for selling iDEN networks to neighboring countries. The network features “push-to-talk” (similar to walkie-talkie) service and mobile telephony, text messaging, and data services, and is identical to that used for Nextel networks in the US, Latin America and other operators in Asia. The network is to become operational between this spring and early 2005.

The project is US Ex-Im’s largest financing in Jordan, and the bank’s first limited-recourse project financing in the country.

In addition to Motorola, US exporters are Kathrein Inc, Scala Division; Transistor Devices; K&L Microwave; Ditech Communications; SS8 Networks; Oracle Corp; Sun Microsystems; JIT Warehouse; and Southern Distribution Telecom.