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 IDT Acquires Fiber Capacity on Transatlantic Cable System
HACKENSACK, NJ -- November 7, 1997 -- IDT Corporation (NASDAQ:
IDTC), a leading provider of low-cost international telecommunications,
today announced that it has signed an $8 million agreement with
Global Telesystems Ltd. to acquire an indefeasible right of use
(IRU) on transatlantic cable between the US and UK on the Atlantic
Crossing (AC1) cable network. The new route will be connected to
the existing IDT telecom network, and is a critical step toward
achieving the Companyís strategic initiative of expanding
its worldwide telecom infrastructure.
The Company expects to begin routing traffic over the new cable
network by June 1998, which is expected to result in significantly
reduced operating costs, improved margins, and decreased terminating
rates. This new acquisition further establishes IDT as a fast-growing
international carrier.
The purchase of the STM-1 cable, which is equivalent to three DS3ís
(155 megabits of capacity), replaces leased circuits between the
US and UK, and is expected to reduce the transatlantic portion of
the costs by a substantial magnitude. The cable will provide more
than 10 times the current leased capacity. The Company has also
secured favorable financing commitments, and intends to expand its
cable network throughout 1998 with fiber connecting the UK and additional
European countries. This purchase will also provide the Company
with an expanded UK facility that will mirror IDTís US facilities
from a management, technical, and cost perspective, and gives the
Company a strong beachhead in the European market, which will position
the Company well to compete with the European telcos as those markets
deregulate in the coming year.
"Buying the right to use these routes allows us to improve
service and quality for IDT customers and will help us further emerge
as an industry leader," said IDT President Jim Courter. "This
agreement will enable IDT to route more traffic over our own network,
decrease our cost structure, improve gross margins, and will result
in quicker provisioning for both wholesale and retail customers.
We look forward to continuing to expand our worldwide telecommunications
network in the coming quarters."
The Atlantic Crossing cable system combines state-of-the-art wavelength
division multiplexing with erbium-doped fiber amplifier technology,
making it the most powerful cable system and assuring customers
capacity on demand. AT&T (NYSE: T) signed an agreement with AC1
earlier this year to build this cable network.
IDT Corporation is a diversified telecommunications company with
seven years of innovation within the international telecommunications
arena offering a variety of wholesale and retail services. The Company
routes and resells international long distance services to individuals
and businesses in over 225 countries and to telecommunications carriers
in the US and overseas. The Company currently has over 400,000 retail
customers using an array of services including international long
distance, Internet, and Internet telephony services. The Company
is a leader in Internet telephony, routing telephone calls over
the Internet at substantially reduced rates.
Except for historical information, all of the expectations and
assumptions contained in the foregoing are forward-looking statements
involving risks and uncertainties. Important factors that could
cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking
statements, include, but are not limited to, the competitive environment
for Internet telephony, changes of rates of all related telco rates
and services, legislation that may affect the Internet Telephony
industry, IDT's ability to operate the services described on a large
scale commercial level. For additional information regarding these
and other risks associated with the Company's business refer to
the Company's reports filed with the SEC.
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