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Net2Phone
and Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico Reach Consumer Milestone
1,000th customer installed and provisioned with cable VoIP services
Newark, NJ and Luquillo, Puerto Rico - March 9, 2004 - Net2Phone
(NASDAQ: NTOP) Cable Telephony, LLC and Liberty Cablevision of Puerto
Rico, Inc. today announced the installation and the provisioning
of the 1,000th cable telephony customer within Liberty Puerto Ricos
footprint since the formal launch of Net2Phones outsourced
residential telephone service in mid-December, 2003.
Achieving this milestone showcases the demand, scalability and
technical viability of Net2Phones service. Liberty Puerto
Rico has deployed VoiceLinks in three municipalities
in eastern Puerto Rico, offering consumers local, long distance
and international phone service, including features such as call
waiting, caller ID, directory assistance, and 911. Consumers receive
one unified bill for all of Liberty Puerto Ricos services.
Net2Phones back office systems integrate with Liberty Puerto
Ricos network operations center, provisioning software and
customer service software, enabling Liberty Puerto Ricos existing
staff to support telephone service along with high-speed Internet
and video services.
The success of our telephony deployment has exceeded our
expectations, said Jose Alegria, General Manager of Liberty
Cablevision of Puerto Rico. We are leveraging our existing
infrastructure and personnel - even our installers - to add phone
service to our robust and valuable data and video product mix. Net2Phone
has done a tremendous job of integrating their components with our
existing systems to make the rollout of phone service seamless to
our team.
Net2Phone is continuing its strategy of empowering cable operators
with the tools to provide residential phone service to its subscribers
utilizing existing cable networks. Through the Net2Phone Cable Telephony
model, Liberty Puerto Rico controls the service brand and Tier I
customer and technical support, while Net2Phone supports the back
office Packet Cable infrastructure, switching and transport, and
Tier II+ technical support to deliver a fully managed Quality of
Service (QoS) IP solution.
The metrics speak for themselves - more than 1000 minutes
of use per subscriber per month showcases the quality and reliability
of the service, said Stephen Greenberg, CEO of Net2Phone.
This deployment demonstrates that outsourcing telephony to
Net2Phone - the VoIP experts who have been doing this longer and
better than anyone else - is a wise move for any operator looking
to quickly and efficiently deploy residential phone service and
round out the triple play. We look forward to continuing to roll
out to Liberty Puerto Ricos entire footprint.
About Net2Phone
Founded in 1995, Net2Phone is a leading provider of retail VoIP
services globally, comprised of two wholly owned subsidiaries. Net2Phone
Global Services ("NGS") provides consumers and small businesses
globally with bundled voice and enhanced services either directly
or via partners. Its robust hosted services platform enables service
providers, including high speed data providers, wireless providers
and telecommunications operators, with a host of VoIP solutions
- including residential broadband telephony, calling cards, prefix
dialing and enterprise services globally. The same platform supports
Net2Phones more than 100,000 customers in the US as well as
hundreds of thousands of users overseas. Net2Phone Cable Telephony
("NCT") provides cable operators with a turn-key solution
to deliver residential phone service to their subscribers. While
the opportunities for each unit differ, each division relies on
quality partners for distribution and each utilizes a centralized
platform to deliver retail services at a low incremental cost. Traded
on the NASDAQ under the symbol NTOP, Net2Phone's strategic partners
and investors include Liberty Media Corporation (NYSE: L; LMC.B)
and IDT Corporation (NYSE: IDT; IDT.C). For more information about
Net2Phone's products and services, please visit www.net2phone.com
<http://www.net2phone.com>.
Liberty Cablevision of Puerto Rico, Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary
of Liberty Media Corporation (NYSE: L, LMC.B). Liberty Cablevision
passes approximately 310,000 homes and serves approximately 120,000
customers in 37 municipalities principally located in the Eastern,
Central and Northern regions of the island of Puerto Rico. In the
second quarter of 2002, the company launched the first fully interactive
television service on the island, as well as high-speed data access
through cable modems.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the
meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended,
and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended.
These forward- looking statements involve risks and uncertainties
and actual results could differ materially from those discussed
in the forward-looking statements. For this purpose, any statements
contained in this press release that are not statements of historical
fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Factors which
may affect the Company's results include, but are not limited to,
the Company's ability to expand its customer base, the Company's
ability to develop additional and leverage its existing distribution
channels for its products and solutions, dependence on strategic
and channel partners including their ability to distribute the Company's
products and meet or renew their financial commitments, the Company's
ability to address international markets, the effectiveness of the
Company's sales and marketing activities, the acceptance of the
Company's products in the marketplace, the timing and scope of deployments
of the Company's products by customers, fluctuations in customer
sales cycles, customers' ability to obtain additional funding, technical
difficulties with respect to the Company's products or products
in development, the need for ongoing product development in an environment
of rapid technological change, the emergence of new competitors
in the marketplace, the Company's ability to compete successfully
against established competitors with greater resources, the uncertainty
of future governmental regulation, the Company's ability to manage
growth, obtain patent protection, and obtain additional funds, general
economic conditions and other risks discussed in this Report and
in the Company's other filings with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. All forward-looking statements and risk factors included
in this document are made as of the date hereof, based on information
available to the Company as of the date thereof, and the Company
assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statement or
risk factors.
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