iBasis Exceeds 150 Million Minutes in 1999 IP Voice/Fax
Traffic; Sets New Internet Telephony Benchmark
Business/Technology Editors
BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 23, 1999--
Company Carries As Much as 10% of All Phone Traffic
from US to China
iBasis, Inc., (NASDAQ:IBAS) the leader in international Internet
telephony, today announced that voice and fax traffic carried over its
global Internet telephony network has already exceeded 150 million
minutes during 1999. This unprecedented volume of phone-to-phone voice
over IP traffic has been delivered over the iBasis Network(TM), the
world's largest international Cisco Powered Network(TM) for Internet
telephony. In addition, iBasis announced that since June it has
carried as much as 10% of all phone traffic from the US to China(1).
This achievement is due primarily to the company's strategic
partnership with China Unicom, China's second largest carrier.
"The extraordinary volume of traffic we're carrying today is due
to our unique ability to deliver the cost savings of the Internet with
the high level of quality demanded by our large volume, international
carrier customers," said Ofer Gneezy, president and CEO of iBasis. "We
are also aggressively expanding our global footprint and capacity,
adding new partners, new countries and new overseas lines in order to
meet the rapidly growing demand for our services."
"It's clear that the demand for Internet telephony services is
continuing to grow exponentially," said Mark Winther, group vice
president, Worldwide Telecommunications, IDC. "And while IP telephony
still makes up a relatively small percentage of all global voice and
fax traffic, iBasis' experience demonstrates that on certain
international routes, Internet-based service already represents a
significant percentage of calls."
iBasis and China Unicom
In March of 1999, the Chinese government granted a license to
China Unicom to provide IP telephony services. After selecting iBasis
as its strategic partner for IP telephony, China Unicom began offering
voice over IP services in 12 Chinese cities in June 1999. China Unicom
and iBasis plan to expand IP telephony services to more than 300
Chinese cities during the year 2000.
Internet Telephony From iBasis
iBasis is the proven leader in Internet telephony and has
employed unparalleled technological expertise to develop and deploy
the world's first global voice-over-Internet Protocol (VoIP) network
that provides voice and real-time fax service equal to or better than
that possible over traditional phone networks. This capability has
enabled iBasis to become the largest volume international
phone-to-phone Internet Telephony Service Provider.
Internet Telephony Hosting
Recently, the company introduced Internet Telephony Hosting(TM),
a flexible outsourcing solution for telephony service providers and
international Internet service providers (ISPs) that enables them to
quickly begin offering voice, fax, pre-paid calling and other
value-added VoIP services with minimal capital investment. These new
services include use of hosted voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP)
equipment in iBasis Internet Central Offices, access to high quality
Internet backbone, global Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN)
termination and the Operational Support Systems (OSS) necessary for
traffic management, reporting and customer billing.
Global Network Expansion Underway
In order to meet the rapidly growing demand for its core voice
and fax services as well as to deliver new hosting solutions, iBasis
has also announced plans to significantly expand its global
infrastructure. As of December 1999, the company has carrier-class
Internet Central Offices in Frankfurt, Hong Kong, London, Los Angeles
and New York, Internet Branch Offices in dozens of countries and can
terminate voice and fax traffic in virtually every country in the
world. The company plans to quadruple the number of Internet Central
Offices (ICOs) in its network from five to 20 by the end of 2000
substantially increasing infrastructure capacity. As the market for
advanced, IP-based communications expands, this large-scale network
expansion will help ensure that iBasis has the global platform
necessary to deliver the value-added services that will drive the next
wave of growth in Internet telephony.
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