LEADING EUROPEAN TELECOMS POLICYMAKERS CONVENE AT ECTA REGULATORY CONFERENCE

Annual meeting of telecommunications stakeholders to debate next decade of regulatory decisions

Brussels, 3 October 2008 - ECTA’s annual Telecommunications Regulatory Conference, which attracts Europe’s leading policymakers, national authorities, regulators and operators, will take place in Brussels on 26-28th November, 2008. The conference comes at a critical time for the European telecommunications market, as the regulatory environment for next generation broadband access is determined.

The Conference, sponsored by KPMG and supported by pro-competition providers including BT, Cable & Wireless, Fastweb, TDC, Wind and Verizon Group, will provide one of the most important forums this year for open debate on the recently announced Framework Review proposals made by the European Parliament and the Commission.

Click here to view the full press release

WESTFORD, MA and STAINES, UK, September, 22, 2008 - Sonus Networks, (Nasdaq: SONS), a market leader in IP communications infrastructure, and Interoute, the owner of an advanced next generation voice and data network in Europe, today announced that they are working together to increase the capacity of Interoute’s Virtual Voice Network (VVN) in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the United States.

STUDY REVEALS HIGH COSTS WILL LIMIT SUPERFAST BROADBAND

ECTA calls for focus on availability and openness of fibre networks, warns against unprofitable duplication

Brussels, 16 September 2008 – Groundbreaking research published today by WIK, reveals that high fixed costs will limit the availability of super fast broadband to many European homes and rural businesses. France has the best prospect of fibre rollout, with viability to 25% of households. The study also shows that the economics simply do not stack up for competitive operators to duplicate costly infrastructure on a wide scale and that access to fibre is a win-win scenario as it improves the business case for all providers, to the ultimate benefit of consumers.  Click here for ECTA's full press release (PDF 94KB)

Click here for WIK press release (PDF 86KB)
Click here for executive summary of WIK NGA study  (PDF 161KB)
Click here for copy of WIK NGA study (ZIP PDF 1.91MB)

REPORT SHOWS 100 MILLION EUROPEANS HAVE BROADBAND ACCESS

Super-speed broadband driven by competitive providers

ECTA calls for open access to fibre to boost broadband speeds and services

Brussels, 1st September 2008 – Europe now has over 100 million broadband subscribers according to the latest Broadband Scorecard released today by ECTA. The results of its twice-yearly survey also show that altnets, or competitive providers, and not the large incumbents which own much of the telecom infrastructure, are leading in provision of super broadband connection speeds above 10Mbits/sec, as well as driving the uptake of high-tech services. Speeds and services have become the next broadband battleground, according to the pro-competition body.

Newbury, UK - 15 July 2008 - Gamma Telecom has launched its new online Geographic Number Porting (GNP) software, removing the administrative burden of placing port orders. The software provides Channel Partners with the ability to log in via the centralised Gamma Portal and place orders online without the complication of completing paper forms or sending faxes.

Until now, porting has been a highly complex process, which has deterred many non-voice specialists from entering the Comms market. Gamma’s new software will automate the porting process, ensuring that the correct order types get sent to the appropriate order desks at the Losing Communication Provider (i.e. BT or other carriers).

Westford, MA., July 10, 2008 - Sonus Networks (Nasdaq: SONS), a market leader in IP communications infrastructure, today announced that VeriSign, the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world, has successfully demonstrated interoperability testing that will allow wireless, wireline and cable operators the ability to run number portability queries over IP-based networks.

The introduction of number portability regulation by many governments has, in some cases, increased the resources needed by carriers to complete the accurate transfer of calls. The implementation of Local Number Portability (LNP) has created the need for carriers to perform a LNP Query. This in turn has resulted in an elevated use of the carrier’s SS7 networks, and in some cases necessitates the need to purchase additional SS7 network capacity.

ECTA WARNS OF THREAT TO BROADBAND COMPETITION FROM EU PARLIAMENT TELECOMS PROPOSALS

Brussels, 08 July 2008 – The European Competitive Telecoms Association, the pro competition group, gave a cautious welcome to proposals from the European Parliament to amend the EU Telecoms Framework, but warned that many of the amendments approved by the European Parliament’s Industry Committee on 7 July protect and favour dominant firms at the expense of competition in the telecoms sector. ECTA cautioned that, if adopted by the Parliament and endorsed by other European institutions, the advantages gained by the dominant firms under the proposed revisions to the EU legislation could undermine competition in high-speed broadband services.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. July 1 2007 - Intelligentias, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: ITLI) today announced the signing of a multi-year data retention software order with one of the world's largest communications service providers. Performance of this order will result in $24 million in revenues for Intelligentias during the term of the project.

Intelligentias will provide data retention and security services for this communications service provider over the next few years. Further details of the order were not revealed at the request of the customer.

LEADING EUROPEAN STUDY SHOWS BUSINESS CASE FOR NEXT GENERATION BROADBAND FAVOURS FORMER INCUMBENTS

Economics of fibre networks prevent widespread replication

ECTA calls for mandatory access to fibre networks in the EU Telecoms Framework to counter anti-competition threat

Brussels, 25 June 2008 – Definitive research, released today at the High Speed Europe conference, is the first to analyse the business case of rolling out next generation fibre networks across Europe. The study, carried out by WIK, one of Europe’s leading telecoms research and analysis firms, shows overwhelming that only incumbent operators, with their extensive infrastructure and customer bases, can profitably roll out high speed fibre to the home (FTTH) lines to large parts of Europe. This raises the possibility that incumbents could once again increase their market share reversing the trend towards more competition in telecoms.

Click here to see the full press release

EUROPEANS PAY OVER €10 BILLION A YEAR IN SPURIOUS MOBILE TERMINATION CHARGES

ECTA endorses Commission’s efforts to cut rates

Brussels, 24 June 2008 – ECTA’s competitive fixed operators today claimed that lucrative wholesale charges imposed by incumbent mobile operators for connecting calls to each other’s networks are both excessive and discriminatory. As a result, European consumers are being penalised. The pro-competition group called on Commissioner Reding to enforce a cut in these charges when she publishes her proposals on termination rates later this month.

Currently the average EU mobile termination rate is nine euro cents a minute, although rates between member states and between networks vary significantly. Commissioner Reding said earlier this month[1] that she wants to see mobile termination rates cut to between one and two euro cents by 2012. ECTA agrees that a significant decrease is needed.