Zain Group Taps Tekelec to Enable Enhanced Consumer Offerings & Lower Operating Cost as Zain Nigeria Steps Toward

MORRISVILLE, NC, Apr 07 (MARKET WIRE) --
Tekelec (NASDAQ: TKLC), the network signaling, mobile messaging and
performance management company, has been chosen by Zain Group to enable
Zain Nigeria Ltd., Zain's largest network operator, to quickly gain the
benefits of migrating to an all-Internet Protocol (IP) multimedia
subsystem (IMS) network. Zain Group provides mobile services in 23
countries and is the world's fourth-largest telecommunications company
based on geographic presence.

Major factors in Zain's selection of Tekelec were the technology's
market-proven reliability and ability to scale to the growing demands of
global service providers. Another important feature in Zain's selection of
Tekelec's EAGLE 5 platform was Tekelec's support of SIGTRAN (SS7
signaling over IP), which is a stepping stone for cost-effectively
migrating to an all-IP network. SIGTRAN enables service providers on the
public-switched telephone networks (PSTNs) to use an underlying IP
transport vehicle, thereby allowing them to offer their subscribers
multimedia services through their existing network. Zain Nigeria
completed the EAGLE 5 deployment in Q4 2008.

"The project has been managed by Tekelec in an exceptionally professional
and consistent manner even when faced with integration into a challenging
environment such as Nigeria," said John Earley, Technical Director for
Zain Nigeria. "I can say with confidence that Tekelec's handling of this
project from start to now has been faultless. We are looking forward to a
seamless integration into our existing core and anticipate substantial
improvements in network signaling performance."

In 2007 and 2008, 37 of Tekelec's 40 new customers purchased the EAGLE 5
platform across Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Central America, Europe, and
the Middle East. The company's solutions are now deployed in 103
countries.

"On a global basis, Tekelec is experiencing strong success with our EAGLE
5 platform," said Wolrad Claudy, Tekelec's senior vice president of global
sales. "Customers consistently cite Tekelec's commitment to innovation and
how that's demonstrated in the EAGLE Product Family's constant evolution
as a platform to support their migration to next-gen and IMS networks. In
the majority of cases -- including Zain Nigeria -- the EAGLE 5 platform
displaced another that could not reliably support the service provider's
migration plans in a flexible and scalable manner."

Industry trends driving the demand for Tekelec's EAGLE 5 platform are
continued strong growth in the number of global mobile subscribers in
emerging markets like Nigeria, short message service (SMS) growth
worldwide, government-mandated number portability, and routing
flexibility. The EAGLE 5 platform has been enhanced with increased
signaling capacity, scalability and performance to address these issues
as well as the complexities of hybrid, next-gen and all-IP networks.

Tekelec continues to execute on its strategy to increase the company's
global footprint with more than 60 percent of its revenues now coming from
outside of North America.

About Tekelec

Tekelec, a global leader in core multimedia session control and network
intelligence, ensures scalable, secure and highly available
communications. The company's market-leading signaling solutions enable
the interworking of different network applications, technologies and
protocols, providing a smooth transition to next-generation networks.
Tekelec has more than 20 offices around the world serving customers in
more than 100 countries, with corporate headquarters located near
Research Triangle Park in Morrisville, N.C., U.S.A. For more information,
please visit http://www.tekelec.com.

About Zain Nigeria

Formerly known as Celtel Nigeria, the company (http://www.ng.zain.com) was
established in 2000, by a group of institutional and private investors as
well as three state governments. It made history on August 5, 2001 by
becoming the first telecoms operator to launch commercial GSM services in
Nigeria. In 2006, following Celtel International's acquisition of majority
stake in the company, it was re-branded Celtel and became an important
part of Celtel's pan-African operations spanning 14 countries. On August
1, 2008 Celtel Nigeria was rebranded Zain Nigeria following the global
acquisition of Celtel International by MTC Group, which transformed to
Zain Group, a leading emerging markets player in the field of
telecommunications aiming to become one of the top ten mobile groups in
the world by 2011. Zain Nigeria, which currently covers over 1500 towns
and 14000 communities across the six geopolitical zones of the country,
scored a series of many other "firsts" in the highly competitive Nigerian
telecommunications market including the first to introduce toll-free
24-hour customer care line-111; first to launch service in all the six
geo-political zones in the country; first to introduce N500 recharge
card; first to commence emergency service (Celtel 199); first to
introduce monthly free SMS and first to introduce monthly airtime bonus.

About Zain

Zain is a leading emerging markets player in the field of
telecommunications aiming to become one of the top ten mobile operators in
the world by 2011. Zain was established in 1983 in Kuwait as the region's
first mobile operator. Since 2003, it has grown significantly becoming the
4th largest mobile network in the world in terms of geographic presence
with a footprint now in 23 countries spread across the Middle East and
Africa providing mobile voice and data services to over 63.5 million
active customers. Zain operates in the following countries: Bahrain,
Burkina Faso, Chad, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of
the Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Kuwait, Malawi, Madagascar,
Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania,
Uganda and Zambia. In Lebanon, the company manages the network on behalf
of the government operating as mtc-touch. The company offers innovative
services in its markets such as One Network, the world's first borderless
mobile telecommunication network enabling customers to receive and make
calls throughout many countries in Africa and the Middle East at free or
local rates. The Zain brand is wholly owned by Mobile Telecommunications
Company KSC, which is listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange (Stock ticker:
ZAIN).

For more information, please visit http://www.zain.com/ or email
info@zain.com.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

Certain statements made in this press release are forward looking, reflect
the Company's current intent, belief or expectations and involve certain
risks and uncertainties. The Company's actual future performance may
differ materially from such expectations as a result of important risk
factors, which include, in addition to those identified in the Company's
2008 Form 10-K and its other filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, the effect of the current or escalating economic crisis
including the impact of credit availability and currency fluctuations on
overall telecommunications spending by our customers, the current or
further detrimental changes in general economic, social, or political
conditions in the countries in which we operate, the timeliness and
functional competitiveness of our product releases, our ability to
maintain OEM, partner, and vendor support and supply relationships, our
ability to compete with other manufacturers that have lower cost bases
than ours and/or are partially supported by foreign governments or employ
other unfair trade practices, and changes in the market price of the
Company's common stock. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly
update any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise.

Public Relations Contact:
Adam Parken
Public Relations Manager
(o) 919.653.9681
adam.parken@tekelec.com

Copyright 2009, Market Wire, All rights reserved.

-0-