OT>>> Teligent Launches Service in First Ten Markets, Vows to Start a Communications Revolution; Company Begins Marketing Unprecedented Savings, Big Bandwidth and <>
October 28, 1998
VIENNA, Va., Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ via
NewsEdge Corporation -- Telegraph.
Telephone. Teligent.
With a commitment to revolutionize the
communications industry, Teligent (Nasdaq:
TGNT) today introduced its integrated package
of communications services to America,
promising to launch customers into the 2lst
Century with Teligent's Digital SmartWave(TM)
technology.
Highlighting big savings, big bandwidth and a
big bundle of integrated communications
services for small and medium-sized businesses,
Teligent launched major sales and advertising
campaigns in its first ten markets -- New York,
Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, Dallas-Fort
Worth, San Antonio, Austin, Washington DC,
Denver and Tampa.
By year-end, Teligent plans to initiate service
and sales campaigns in five more markets --
San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, Miami,
Orlando and Jacksonville.
Teligent's unique offer will give Teligent
customers local, long distance, high-speed
data and dedicated Internet services for one
flat monthly rate with up to 30 percent
savings.
Teligent service will feature "e-magine(TM)," a
state-of-the-art, interactive, Web-based
management tool that will give customers
access to their billing and account information
in ways that are revolutionary.
Using their Internet browser, customers will be
able to sort and analyze calls by account code,
employee, originating number or other criteria
-- virtually any way they choose.
They will be able to order services on-line. And
they'll be able to download data for their own
use -- every day. That means they won't have
to wait for a paper bill to arrive in the mail
every month to keep abreast of their
communications activity.
"Millions of small and mid-sized businesses have
struggled for years with high prices, indifferent
service, painfully slow Internet access and
confusing bills," said Teligent Chairman and CEO
Alex J. Mandl. "Today, we're letting the world
know that we intend to help these customers
solve their cost, service and bandwidth
problems so they can compete with any
company, no matter how big."
Said Teligent President and COO Kirby G.
"Buddy" Pickle: "At Teligent, we focus on
delivering four key values -- Simplicity, Service,
Savings and Speed. Beginning today, we intend
to put those values to work for our customers."
In keeping with that pledge, Teligent today
unveiled its revolutionary savings offer that will
transform a customer's communications bill into
a simple, predictable package.
"This offer represents the future of
communications, delivered today, " said
Teligent Senior Vice President for Sales and
Marketing Richard J. Hanna. "We're offering up
to 30 percent off the rates customers currently
are paying their local Bell company, national
long distance carrier and Internet provider. To
qualify for the discount, customers switch their
existing service -- local service, or local service
in some combination with long distance or
Internet -- and sign up with Teligent for a
minimum of one year. In most cases, that's all
they have to do.
"How do we calculate the discount? It's simple
and straightforward," Hanna said. "Here's how it
usually works. We take several representative
bills for our customers' local phone service,
domestic long distance, and Internet access,
exclude taxes, surcharges and fees, calculate
the average, and subtract 30 percent. Then
we lock in the new low rate on a flat monthly
bill. International services will be priced
separately. Usage on local and Internet service
is unlimited. And a customer can choose to add
more long distance usage at very competitive
rates."
Teligent can deliver these substantial savings
to customers because it is creating its own
digital networks to deliver local service to its
customers. These networks give the company
a substantially lower cost structure than the
traditional local telephone companies, or other
competitors that use the existing local
networks.
With e-magine, Teligent will empower
customers to take command of their
communications universe.
"Combined with our savings offer, e-magine will
enable customers to budget easily with a
flat-rate plan, and give them access to on-line
usage information on a daily basis," said Pickle.
"We are delivering the communications tools
that small and mid-sized businesses need to
grow. Teligent enables our customers to focus
their time and people on their business -- not
on their communications bill."
Teligent already has made a big difference in
the lives of some of its very first customers.
As Director of Strategic Marketing and
Development of United Check Control, Inc., a
growing transaction processing firm in Houston,
Scott Schultz knows that reliability is critical
for data communications. "We do about 75,000
transactions a day through these data lines
with Teligent. As we grow, Teligent will be a
vital part of our organization," Schultz said.
At Shamrock Publishing, a Houston
telemarketing firm, "We need a good, clear
connection," said President Joseph Kirby. "With
Teligent we get that. And our service has been
great."
To let potential customers know how their
businesses can benefit from its services,
Teligent today kicked off a targeted advertising
campaign, directed at small and medium-sized
businesses, in newspapers and business
publications across the country. The ad copy
declares: "Telegraph. Telephone. Teligent," The
ad then explains that the first communications
company of the 21st Century has arrived
today, intending to revolutionize the industry.
The "Telegraph. Telephone. Teligent." message
also was unveiled on a new billboard
overlooking New York City's Times Square, on
buildings along Wilshire Boulevard in Los
Angeles and on commuter trains in Chicago.
Teligent also became the first company to take
over dominant advertising space inside New
York City's World Trade Center subway and
commuter train station.
Teligent's service offering is supported by a
skilled communications workforce that has
grown to approximately 1,200 in the past 18
months. Teligent teams now are deployed in 30
markets across the country, building Teligent's
local communications networks.
"In each of these markets, we are making
significant investments in the community," said
Mandl. "We are hiring people, we are creating a
state-of-the-art communications
infrastructure, and we are, in many cases for
the first time, offering a real alternative to the
existing copper networks controlled by local
telephone monopolies."
Digital SmartWave technology represents a
marriage of proven high-frequency radio
transmission equipment with latest advances in
point-to-multipoint radio technology, enabling
Teligent to increase its local network efficiency
and significantly lower network costs.
"We are building tomorrow's networks for
today's customers," said Teligent Senior Vice
President for Engineering and Operations Keith
W. Kaczmarek. "Our state-of-the-art, local
facilities will integrate the latest in
point-to-multipoint technology with more,
traditional technology, including point-to-point
fixed wireless and broadband wireline."
Instead of digging up streets and punching
holes in buildings, Teligent delivers service by
installing small antennas on the roofs of
customer buildings. When a customer picks up
a telephone, turns on a computer or activates
a videoconference, the signal travels over
inside wiring to the rooftop antenna. The
customer building antenna then relays the
voice, data or video signals to a Teligent base
station antenna.
The base station antenna gathers signals from
a cluster of surrounding customer buildings,
aggregates the signals and then routes them to
a Teligent broadband switching center. At the
switching center, Teligent uses ATM
(asynchronous transfer mode) switches and
data routers along with Nortel DMS 500
switches to hand off the traffic to other
networks -- the public circuit-switched voice
network, the packet-switched Internet, and
private data networks.
Digital SmartWave technology is configured to
handle both voice and data traffic with equal
ease, ensuring that Teligent can handle today's
huge volume of voice traffic and at the same
time is prepared for the coming data traffic
explosion.
Based in Vienna, Va., Teligent, Inc. (Nasdaq:
TGNT) is a full-service, integrated
communications company that is offering small
and medium-sized business customers
lower-cost local, long distance, high-speed
data and dedicated Internet services over its
Digital SmartWave local networks in ten major
markets. Eventually, Teligent will expand
service to 74 major metropolitan areas
throughout the United States. Teligent's
offerings of regulated services are subject to
tariff approval.
For more information, visit the Teligent website
at teligent.com
Except for any historical information contained
herein, the matters discussed in this press
release contain forward-looking statements
that involve risks and uncertainties, including
but not limited to economic, key employee,
competitive, governmental and technological
factors affecting the company's growth,
operations, markets, products, services,
licenses and other factors discussed in the
company's filings with the Securities and
Exchange Commission. Actual results may vary
materially due to these and other risks and
uncertainties.
SOURCE Teligent, Inc. |
