Sydney (Australia), July 11, 2006 - Alcatel (Paris: CGEP.PA and NYSE: ALA) and Avnet Partner Solutions, Australia, a leading value-added distribution and a division of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT)today announced a formal distribution agreement to deliver Alcatel IP networking solutions acrossAustralia. Under the agreement, Avnet will distribute the entire series of Alcatel OmniSwitch, OmniStack and OmniAccess products to systems integrators, outsourcers and value-added resellers inAustralia.

Mike Stein, Country Manager for Alcatel enterprise activities, said the partnership brings together Alcatel’s industry leading IP communications solutions with Avnet’s expertise and efficient operations in the Australian networking market.

“Alcatel’s best of breed technology combined with Avnet’s operational excellence will deliver even more value to both existing and new resellers in Australia. Under this new arrangement, Alcatel partners and their customers will benefit from reduced delivery times for new products and from having more in-country stock” said Stein.  “In the future we are looking at ways to improve spares and advance replacement parts availability for distribution,” noted Stein.

Colin McKenna, Vice President of Avnet Partner Solutions, Australia, said: “We are excited about the relationship with Alcatel and their commitment to the enterprise networking market. Alcatel’s advanced technology in the areas of LAN switching, wireless LAN and network security provides resellers, integrators and IT professionals with highly robust and reliable networking solutions at costs that are lower than the competition.”

Colin McKenna said key priorities for Avnet and Alcatel will be to explain the benefits of the new relationship to existing channel partners and add new resellers and integrators to the roster. To achieve this, Avnet will be undertaking a significant marketing campaign to sign-up new resellers and systems integrators, to promote Alcatel solutions within Avnet’s existing partner network and to build upon Alcatel’s existing network of partners.

About Alcatel Enterprise solutions
With more than 500,000 customers, Alcatel is a leading provider of communication solutions to small, medium, and large enterprises, as well as to public sector institutions worldwide. Alcatel’s enterprise portfolio provides business communication applications, including Unified Communications and Contact Centers, an advanced IP Telephony offering, and IP Networking products. Alcatel’s enterprise solutions deliver an enhanced competitive edge to businesses of all sizes by increasing customer satisfaction, employee productivity, and operational efficiencies.

About Alcatel
Alcatel provides communications solutions to telecommunication carriers, Internet service providers and enterprises for delivery of voice, data and video applications to their customers or employees. Alcatel brings its leading position in fixed and mobile broadband networks, applications and services, to help its partners and customers build a user-centric broadband world. With sales of EURO 13.1 billion and 58,000 employees in 2005, Alcatel operates in more than 130 countries. For more information, visit Alcatel on the Internet: http://www.alcatel.com

About Avnet Partner Solutions, Australia

Avnet Partner Solutions, Australia is an industry-leading, value-added distributor and provider of enterprise servers, storage, software and services. Avnet Partner Solutions Australia provides solutions from industry-leading manufacturers including, HP, IBM, Oracle, Enterasys Networks and Novell’s Suse Linux -- driving growth for partners and manufacturers. Avnet Partner Solutions is a division of Avnet Pacific Pty Limited, and a part of the Avnet Technology Solutions operating group of Avnet, Inc. (NYSE:AVT). For more information, visit: www.avnetpartnersolutions.com.au

Avnet (NYSE:AVT) enables success from the center of the technology industry, providing cost-effective services and solutions vital to a broad base of more than 100,000 customers and 300 suppliers. The Company markets, distributes and adds value to a wide variety of electronic components, enterprise computer products and embedded subsystems. Through its premier market position, Avnet brings a breadth and depth of capabilities that help its trading partners accelerate growth and realize cost efficiencies. For the fiscal year ended July 2, 2005, Avnet and the recently acquired Memec (closed July 5, 2005) generated combined revenue in excess of $13 billion through sales in approximately 70 countries.