Net2Phone Expands National Cable Television Cooperative Platinum Vendor Status with the Signing of Master Services Agreement
Communications Services and the City of Tifton First NCTC Members to Take Advantage of Net2Phone's Turnkey Solutions to Deploy Telephony under MSA
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 5, 2005-- Net2Phone, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTOP - News), a leading Voice over IP (VoIP) enabler for service providers, announced today that it has signed five year contracts with two broadband service providers in conjunction with signing a newly established National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) Master Services Agreement (MSA). Net2Phone has been a Platinum Vendor of VoIP services to the NCTC, a purchasing group representing more than 1,100 US cable operators, and offers members a way to quickly and easily offer telephony services to their customers. Net2Phone's two newest customers, Communications Services and the City of Tifton, Georgia Telecommunications Municipal Cable and Broadband System (CityNet), plan to offer Net2Phone VoiceLine(SM) broadband telephony service across their footprints. These announcements were made at the 2005 National Show in San Francisco.
The NCTC Master Services Agreement permits member broadband operators to sign on to access Net2Phone's telephony solutions, allowing them to bypass time and effort negotiating a separate contract for their outsourced services. Net2Phone works with broadband operators to quickly and efficiently deploy the Net2Phone full-featured competitively priced telephony services, which support multiple platforms and technologies. The NCTC MSA is specifically focused on supporting broadband voice deployment through the use of Net2Phone's VoiceLine SIP-based telephony solution, which uses a centralized softswitch able to support multiple broadband operators globally.
"Our agreements with Communications Services and with the Telecommunications Department of the City of Tifton are great examples of the scalability and flexibility of the Net2Phone solution," said Michael Pastor, President of Net2Phone Cable Telephony. "Cable operators big and small can benefit from adding telephony to their suite of services. This Master Services Agreement empowers smaller operators to leverage their relationship with the NCTC to gain access to bulk purchasing levels and quickly deploy SIP telephony."
"Deploying VoIP services to this city will keep Tifton in the forefront in providing our citizens with telecommunications services at the level of much larger cities," said Paul Johnson, Mayor of Tifton. "We are proud to be one of the first telecommunication NCTC member systems to partner with Net2Phone to deploy VoiceLine digital telephone service."
In addition to quick and cost effective implementation and operation, NCTC members benefit from Net2Phone's proven telephony business expertise handling the service and support for the voice network, lowering the costs of and providing the expertise necessary to build a solution internally. NCTC members will maintain ownership of their telephony subscribers and brand, and will provide customer service and technical support. Net2Phone will enable provisioning and billing integration; aswitching platform with CLASS 5 type feature functionality; advanced features such as Caller ID; network management tools; connectivity with the PSTN, and operator services/directory assistance. Customers of participating NCTC members can benefit from cost savings in addition to receiving the convenience of a one-stop-shopping bundled offer of cable TV, high-speed Internet access and cable modem telephony services.
About Net2Phone
Net2Phone provides VoIP PacketCable, SIP and wireless solutions around the world. As a leader in turn-key hosted VoIP telephony services, Net2Phone has routed billions of VoIP minutes globally, servicing more than 100,000 users in the US as well as hundreds of thousands of more overseas. Net2Phone provides partners with a SIP-based broadband telephony solution, calling cards, prefix dialing and enterprise services in over 100 countries. Net2Phone's PacketCable platform provides cable operators with the ability to deliver a high quality primary line-type service with features such as emergency calling. For more information about Net2Phone's products and services, please visit www.net2phone.com.
About National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC)
A member-operated programming and hardware buying cooperative, NCTC represents more than 1,100 independent cable operators in all 50 states. As a group, their 8,000 individual systems provide cable service to more than 20 million subscribers nationwide.
Michael L. Pandzik has served as the Co-op's founding President and CEO since NCTC's inception in 1984. The Cooperative is headquartered in Lenexa, Ks., a Kansas City suburb.
About City of Tifton Telecommunications (CityNet)
In October of 1999, the City of Tifton, Georgia built a municipal hybrid fiber coaxial (HFC) system to deploy advanced telecommunications services to citizens of the City at a time when private providers were unwilling to invest in such a system in smaller towns. Today the CityNet system provides Cable TV services including Digital Cable as well as High Speed Broadband Internet services to about 5000 subscribers living within the City limits of Tifton and in several high density unincorporated areas in Tift County. |
