Net2Phone to Provide Telephony Services for Third Caribbean Service Provider
Monday March 8, 8:35 am ET
The Cable of St. Kitts Selects Net2Phone to Deliver VoIP Services Island-Wide
NEWARK, N.J. & St. Kitts--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 8, 2004--Net2Phone (NASDAQ: NTOP - News), and The Cable of St. Kitts today announced a memorandum of understanding to deploy a suite of Net2Phone's VoIP services, including Net2Phone VoiceLine, throughout the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
The Cable, the only cable operator in St. Kitts, will offer its customers in St. Kitts Net2Phone's VoiceLine residential broadband telephony service over its cable network. Net2Phone VoiceLine is the company's SIP-based broadband telephony service, enabling service providers to offer competitive local, long distance and international inbound and outbound phone services with advanced features utilizing their existing infrastructure (See "Net2Phone Unveils SIP Solutions for Broadband Providers" released earlier today). The Cable will also market prefix dial international services to customers without broadband allowing them to benefit from the cost savings associated with Net2Phone powered VoIP services. Consumers and businesses federation-wide will be able to access The Cable's competitively priced international service by dialing a three digit access code in a similar manner to the 10-10-xxx dial around services in the United States.
All of these services draw on Net2Phone's SIP (Session Initiated Protocol) hosted services platform that allows the development and support of multiple voice applications and back office integration tools all using the same infrastructure. The result is that service providers are able to maximize their telephony revenue by offering more services.
"We could not be more pleased with our relationship with The Cable to deliver affordable quality communications solutions for the people of St. Kitts and Nevis," said Stephen Greenberg, CEO of Net2Phone. "While it is our third agreement in the region - after Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico and C&W-owned TSTT - this is far from the last, as we are continuing our Caribbean strategy to empower service providers with value-added VoIP services."
Under the brand "The Cable Powered by Net2Phone," Net2Phone VoiceLine will offer The Cable's customers features such as call waiting, caller ID, voice mail and online account management tools as well as competitive international calling plans.
"With the help of Net2Phone, we can now give our customers the triple play of voice, video and data," said W.R. Ewing, CEO of The Cable. "Employing Net2Phone's technology and expertise in our telephony deployment provides us with both speed to market and the ability to deliver multiple affordable telephony services throughout St. Kitts and Nevis."
Following the execution of the definitive agreement, The Cable expects to deploy the VoIP telephony service and offer prefix dial services by the second half of 2004 throughout the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis.
About Net2Phone
Founded in 1995, Net2Phone is a leading provider of retail VoIP services globally, comprised of two wholly owned subsidiaries. Net2Phone Global Services ("NGS") provides consumers and small businesses globally with bundled voice and enhanced services either directly or via partners. Its robust hosted services platform enables service providers, including high speed data providers, wireless providers and telecommunications operators, with a host of VoIP solutions - including residential broadband telephony, calling cards, prefix dialing and enterprise services globally. The same platform supports Net2Phone's more than 100,000 consumers and corporate users in the US as well as hundreds of thousands more overseas. Net2Phone Cable Telephony ("NCT") provides cable operators with a turn-key solution to deliver residential phone service to their subscribers. While the opportunities for each unit differ, each division relies on quality partners for distribution and each utilizes a centralized platform to deliver retail services at a low incremental cost. 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.
About The Cable
Founded in 1983 The Cable has offered Cable Television Services on the island of St. Kitts for more than twenty years with its cable TV network passing more than 98% of homes and businesses on the island. Its Network has recently undergone substantial rebuilding and upgrading, including the provision of a fiber optic ring around the island bringing high speed IP Services within reach of all Cable Television Customers.
The Cable was recently awarded a Telecommunications License allowing it to provide a full range of telecommunications services in The Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis in competition with the incumbent monopoly operator Cable & Wireless St. Kitts and Nevis Ltd. Consequently The Cable has entered into an Interconnection Agreement with the incumbent to enable provision of seamless telephone service between customers of both networks.
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. |
