To: Elminster who wrote (457 ) 2/21/1999 8:07:00 PM From: hoffy Respond to of 3517
GRPV news GROUP V SUBSIDIARY PARTNERS WITH INTERNET TELEPHONY PROVIDER ADVANCING WORLD WIDE WEB PRESENCE -Venture Opens Economical Long Distance Access in Major International Markets- San Francisco, CA (February 19, 1999): Group V subsidiary, Academy Network Services (ANS) and Sunrise Telecom announced today a joint venture to provide an international telephony gateway through a co-location agreement with ANS's Little Rock, Arkansas operations center. To begin in April, the co-location drastically reduces long distance costs for ANS and expands the international calling network with cost-effective Internet Telephony service. According to Joseph Monterosso, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Group V, "By integrating Internet Telephony technology at this stage in the growth and development of ANS, the Company has positioned itself to take full advantage of the tremendous opportunities that the Internet offers our customers with a worldwide calling network." Under the terms of the co-location agreement, establishing the Little Rock telehub allows Internet calls to originate and terminate from Academy's switching network to Sunrise Telecom's global network gateways in Lebanon, Kuwait, Sri Lanka and Egypt. The Company indicated that new gateway access established will systematically expand the Company's service network to other international markets over the next two years. Phillip Kennedy, Vice President of Operations for ANS stated, "The migration to Internet Telephony is a natural progression in the telecommunications development for ANS as we expand our worldwide network. The most obvious benefit for us is the anticipated reduction in international long distance rates of up to 90 percent." Kennedy commented that the gateways are an integral part of the Company's plans to target specific countries to market high quality telecommunication products at cost-effective rates. ANS is anticipating significant growth in Internet Telephony over the next twelve months. Internet Telephony is expected to represent 20 billion minutes of voice communication within the next two years. The technology reduces long distance costs by using the World Wide Web to carry high quality voice transmission. Academy Network Services is a wholly owned subsidiary of Group V Corporation (GRPV) specializing in niche telecommunication products and services. As a long distance carrier, Academy has the ability to support various configurations of pre-paid phone card traffic on debit platforms and maintains unlimited capacity for one plus and toll free long distance traffic for a variety o