Net2Phone to Provide Cable Telephony Services for Cequel III's Cebridge Connections
NEWARK, N.J. & ST. LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 18, 2003--Cebridge Connections, a St. Louis-based cable operator managed by Cequel III, LLC, and Net2Phone Cable Telephony, LLC, (NCT), a wholly owned subsidiary of Net2Phone (NASDAQ: NTOP), today announced their entry into a memorandum of understanding, subject to negotiation and execution of a definitive agreement, under which Net2Phone would provide cable voice services for Cebridge.
Cebridge Connections expects to begin the process of deploying cable telephony services by the first quarter of 2004, starting with selected markets in Texas and Missouri that represent about 150,000 high-speed-data homes passed.
Net2Phone's cable voice platform utilizes the industry's Packet Cable compliant standards and permits cable operators like Cebridge Connections to deploy toll-quality residential telephone service over their existing cable infrastructure.
Through the Net2Phone Cable Telephony model, Cebridge Connections will maintain control of the service brand and Tier I customer and technical support, while Net2Phone will support the back office Packet Cable infrastructure, switching and transport, and Tier II+ technical support to deliver a fully managed Quality of Service (QoS) IP solution.
Ultimately, Cebridge Connections customers will be offered the benefits of a bundled package of video, high-speed Internet access, and telephone services.
About Cebridge/Cequel III
Cebridge Connections provides basic and digital cable television service and high-speed Internet access. The company's 350,000 business and residential customers live and work in primarily suburban, small-town, and rural communities across nine states. Cebridge is committed to bringing these customers a level of service that matches what their urban-based counterparts enjoy, and to that end, the company is currently investing tens of millions of dollars to upgrade its systems, improving picture quality, expanding television entertainment choices, and enhancing the Internet experience.
Cequel III is a management company for growth-oriented firms in the cable and telecommunications industries. In addition to Cebridge Connections, the Cequel III team is involved with AAT Communications Corporation, the nation's largest privately held provider of wireless tower sites.
About Net2Phone Cable Telephony, LLC
Net2Phone Cable Telephony (NCT) develops, integrates and manages an outsourced customizable platform to provide cable operators with the tools they need to offer high-quality voice solutions over their current cable infrastructure. The NCT solution complies with cable industry standards and reduces the costs and time to market associated with building a proprietary cable telephony service, thereby allowing cable operators to effectively compete with other established telephony providers.
About Net2Phone
Founded in 1995, Net2Phone is a leading provider of voice services over IP networks worldwide, enabling toll-quality calls between computers, telephones, and broadband devices. Recognized as the first Company to bridge the Internet with the public switched telephone network, Net2Phone has routed billions of minutes of traffic over its award-winning network. Incorporated within the company are (1) Net2Phone Global Services, which sells retail VoIP solutions globally and (2) Net2Phone Cable Telephony, which has developed a fully outsourced standards-compliant telephony solution for cable operators. Traded on the NASDAQ under the symbol NTOP, Net2Phone's strategic partners and investors include Liberty Media Corporation (NYSE: L; LMC.B) and IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT; IDT.C). For more information about Net2Phone's products and services, please visit www.net2phone.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward- looking statements involve risks and uncertainties and actual results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements. For this purpose, any statements contained in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Factors which may affect the Company's results include, but are not limited to, the Company's ability to expand its customer base, the Company's ability to develop additional and leverage its existing distribution channels for its products and solutions, dependence on strategic and channel partners including their ability to distribute the Company's products and meet or renew their financial commitments, the Company's ability to address international markets, the effectiveness of the Company's sales and marketing activities, the acceptance of the Company's products in the marketplace, the timing and scope of deployments of the Company's products by customers, fluctuations in customer sales cycles, customers' ability to obtain additional funding, technical difficulties with respect to the Company's products or products in development, the need for ongoing product development in an environment of rapid technological change, the emergence of new competitors in the marketplace, the Company's ability to compete successfully against established competitors with greater resources, the uncertainty of future governmental regulation, the Company's ability to manage growth, obtain patent protection, and obtain additional funds, general economic conditions and other risks discussed in this Report and in the Company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All forward-looking statements and risk factors included in this document are made as of the date hereof, based on information available to the Company as of the date thereof, and the Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement or risk factors. |
