Millicom Launches Operation in Chad


BERTRANGE, Luxembourg, NEW YORK and STOCKHOLM, Oct. 17, 2005 (PRIMEZONE) -- Millicom International Cellular S.A. ("Millicom") (Nasdaq:MICC) (Stockholmsborsen and Luxembourg Stock Exchange: MIC) today announces the launch of GSM services in Chad under the Tigo brand.

Millicom was awarded a 10-year license to operate a GSM 900 wireless telephony network in Chad in November 2004. Services have today been launched in the capital city of N'Djamena and will be rolled out to 6 other major cities in the coming weeks.

The network is the state-of-the-art GSM network and, from launch, services include GPRS, Edge, MMS and E Pin (Electronic top up).

Marc Beuls, President and Chief Executive Officer of Millicom said: "Chad has a fast growing population of 8.3 million people with almost 67% of the population below the age of 25 and mobile penetration of less than 2%. We are already seeing strong demand for our price-leading and innovative Tigo branded services and are confident that our proven low cost, mass market distribution model will enable us to grow rapidly in this young market."

Millicom International Cellular S.A. is a global telecommunications investor with cellular operations in Asia, Latin America and Africa. It currently has a total of 17 cellular operations and licenses in 16 countries. The Group's cellular operations have a combined population under license of approximately 391 million people.

This press release may contain certain "forward-looking statements" with respect to Millicom's expectations and plans, strategy, management's objectives, future performance, costs, revenues, earnings and other trend information. It is important to note that Millicom's actual results in the future could differ materially from those anticipated in forward-looking statements depending on various important factors. Please refer to the documents that Millicom has filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission under the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, including Millicom's most recent annual report on Form 20-F, for a discussion of certain of these factors.

All forward-looking statements in this press release are based on information available to Millicom on the date hereof. All written or oral forward-looking statements attributable to Millicom International Cellular S.A., any Millicom International Cellular S.A members or persons acting on Millicom's behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the factors referred to above. Millicom does not intend to update these forward-looking statements.


Visit our web site at: www.millicom.com

This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net

The following files are available for download: http://wpy.waymaker.net/client/waymaker1/WOLReleaseFile.aspx?id=141199&fn=wkr0001.pdf



-0-

Contact Data