Stock sitting at 1 7/8:
Access One's CEO Comments On AT&T Decision to
Utilize Leased Facilities in New York, "Decision by
Leading U.S. Telecommunications Company Validates
Our Leased Network Strategy"
STAMFORD, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 21, 1999--Sirco International Corp.
(NASDAQ: SIRC - news) released today comments from Access One's CEO, Ken Baritz,
on AT&T's (NYSE:T - news) decision to utilize leased network facilities from Bell Atlantic (NYSE:BEL - news) to provide
local telecommunications services in New York.
Ken Baritz, Access One's CEO commented, ''We are encouraged by AT&T's decision to utilize leased RBOC facilities as a
means of rapidly entering the local services market in New York. We feel that this decision by the leading U.S.
telecommunications company validates our leased network strategy. Since we began providing local telecommunications
services in 1996, we have focused on a ''customer first'' strategy as opposed to a ''facilities first'' strategy. We have focused
our resources on building brand awareness, sales and marketing models, customer care and billing systems and the growth of
our customer base of small businesses throughout the Southeast.''
Mr. Baritz continued, ''Now both Essex Communications (a wholly owned subsidiary of Sirco) and Access One have rapidly
moved to take advantage of leased network or UNE-P agreements in both New York and throughout the BellSouth
(NYSE:BLS - news) region. These agreements will allow us to grow our local services business with significant gross profit
margins while avoiding the facilities based carriers' challenges, which include: underutilized network capacity, stranded plant,
circuit switching versus packet switching and wireline versus wireless end loops. In the long run we do believe that deploying
network facilities will make sense for us, but given the rapid technological developments in telecommunications and rapidly
falling prices for equipment, leasing facilities from the RBOC today is the most efficient use or our resources.''
Access One Communications is a Florida based competitive local exchange carrier, which provides an integrated suite of
telecommunications and Internet services to small and medium sized business in the Southeastern United States. Access One is
currently converting its existing customer base from resale to a virtual local services network through the only region wide
UNE-P agreement with a Regional Bell Operating Company.
Sirco International Corp. is a diversified publicly traded company with operations organized into three divisions. Sirco's
telecommunications division focuses on developing integrated local and long distance telephone and Internet services in the
converging communications industry. With an approximately 40% ownership interest, Sirco is the single largest shareholder of
Access One.
This release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. The Company's actual results may differ
materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such a difference include,
among others, availability of management; availability, terms, and deployment of capital; the Company's ability to successfully
market its services to current and new customers, generate customer demand for its product and services in the geographical
areas in which the Company can operate, access new markets, negotiate and maintain suitable reseller and interconnection
agreements with the incumbent local exchange carriers, and negotiate and maintain suitable vendor relationships, all in a timely
manner, at reasonable cost and on satisfactory terms and conditions, as well as regulatory, legislative and judicial developments
that could cause actual results to vary in such forward-looking statements.
Contact:
Ken Baritz, CEO
954-714-0000
kbaritz@accessone.org
or
Paul Riss, Sirco's CFO
203-359-4100
paulriss@sircointl.com
Access One Purchases Significant Portion of e.spire
Off-Net Customer Base
STAMFORD, Conn., April 21 /PRNewswire/ -- Sirco International Corp. (Nasdaq: SIRC
- news) announced today the signing of a definitive asset purchase agreement between its affiliate, Access One
Communications, and e.spire Communications (Nasdaq: ESPI - news). The Agreement calls for the acquisition by Access One
of a significant portion of e.spire's off-net customer base in the BellSouth (NYSE: BLS - news) territory. The parties estimated
the acquisition to encompass approximately 15,000 customer access lines.
Ken Baritz, Access One's CEO, stated, ''The value of our BellSouth region-wide leased network agreement can be clearly
demonstrated with this transaction. These are high-quality accounts. By converting them from resale to our leased facilities
network, we can generate a profit while continuing to provide the end user with the same quality of service and the same
discounted price.''
Mr. Baritz continued, ''With this transaction, we will have over 32,000 access lines in service and annualized local
telecommunications revenue of over $20 million. We expect to complete the conversion from resale to our leased network by
the end of May for both our existing customers and this newly acquired customer base. Upon conversion, we expect the
combined customer base to generate positive EBITDA. We are currently investigating UNE-P arrangements with additional
RBOCs, so that we may expand our leased network strategy nationwide. In addition, we intend to continue to aggressively
grow our customer base both organically and through acquisition.''
Access One Communications is a Florida-based competitive local exchange carrier that provides an integrated suite of
telecommunications and Internet services to small- and medium-sized businesses in the Southeastern United States. Access
One is currently converting its existing customer base from resale to a virtual local services network through the only
region-wide UNE-P agreement with a Regional Bell Operating Company.
Sirco International Corp. is a diversified publicly traded company with operations organized into three divisions. Sirco's
telecommunications division focuses on developing integrated local and long distance telephone and Internet services in the
converging communications industry. With an approximately 40% ownership interest, Sirco is the single-largest shareholder of
Access One.
This release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. The Company's actual results may differ
materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such a difference include,
among others, availability of management; availability, terms and deployment of capital; the Company's ability to successfully
market its services to current and new customers; generate customer demand for its product and services in the geographical
areas in which the Company can operate; access new markets; negotiate and maintain suitable reseller and interconnection
agreements with the incumbent local exchange carriers and negotiate and maintain suitable vendor relationships, all in a timely
manner, at reasonable cost and on satisfactory terms and conditions, as well as regulatory, legislative and judicial developments
that could cause actual results to vary in such forward-looking statements.
SOURCE: Access One Communications |
