Viatel Receives UK Public Operator License; Announces Interconnection With British
Telecom, C&W Communications
PR Newswire, Monday, November 24, 1997 at 16:26
NEW YORK, Nov. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Viatel, Inc. (Nasdaq-NNM: VYTL), a
provider of national and international long-distance telecommunications
services, announced today that Viatel UK Ltd., its wholly-owned subsidiary,
has been granted a Public Telecommunications Operator license (PTO) for the
U.K. Combined with the International Facilities License received earlier this
year, the PTO license will permit Viatel to offer unrestricted domestic and
international voice telephony and data communications services to its
customers across its own facilities.
Viatel also said that it has signed agreements to interconnect the Viatel
network with the networks of British Telecom (BT) and Cable & Wireless
Communications (CWC), the country's dominant carriers. This will allow
seamless origination and termination of calls between any points on the three
networks at favorable wholesale rates. Viatel has completed testing and
operational interconnection with CWC. Interconnection testing with BT has
begun, and interconnection is expected to become operational in January, 1998.
"These developments will provide us with the capacity to significantly
expand our wholesale and third-party reseller business in the U.K., while
providing added flexibility in routing and terminating calls across our
European network," said Michael Mahoney, President & CEO of Viatel. "They
will also enhance our ability to leverage our growing transatlantic fiber
capacity and presence in key business markets throughout Western Europe as
deregulation rolls out in 1998."
The PTO license also allows Viatel to build, own and operate telecom
facilities in Great Britain. Viatel's European transatlantic gateway, recently
upgraded with installation of a Nortel DMS-100 switch, is currently located in
London.
Headquartered in New York, NY, Viatel is a facilities-based international
and domestic long-distance telecommunications company with network points of
presence in 30 European cities, and operations in the United States, Latin
America and the Pacific Rim. The Company offers a broad array of competitively
priced, value-added international and domestic long-distance services. Its
customers are primarily small and medium-sized businesses. Viatel provides
long-distance service to more than 230 countries and territories worldwide
through its international network.
Except for the historical information contained herein, the matters
discussed in this release are forward-looking statements that involve risks
and uncertainties, including the continued deregulation of the European Union
member states in which the Company does business, the timely roll out of
additional points of presence and other risks detailed from time to time
in the Company's reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
including those contained in the Company's Annual Reports on Form 10K for the
year ended December 31, 1996. As a result, actual results, events or
conditions, financial or otherwise, could differ materially from those
statements, Viatel undertakes no duty to update such forward-looking
statements.
SOURCE Viatel, Inc.
-0- 11/24/97
/CONTACT: Allan L. Shaw, Chief Financial Officer of Viatel, 212-350-9200,
or E-mail: allan_shaw@viatel.com; or Lee Feldman of Peters & Feldman,
203-854-6761, or E-mail: leefeld@ix.netcom.com/ |
