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Net2Phone
to Provide Cable Telephony Services for Cequel IIIs Cebridge
Connections
Newark, NJ and St. Louis, MO - November 18, 2003 - Cebridge Connections,
a St. Louis-based cable operator managed by Cequel III, LLC, and
Net2Phone Cable Telephony, LLC, (NCT), a wholly owned subsidiary
of Net2Phone (NASDAQ: NTOP), today announced their entry into a
memorandum of understanding, subject to negotiation and execution
of a definitive agreement, under which Net2Phone would provide cable
voice services for Cebridge.
Cebridge Connections expects to begin the process of deploying
cable telephony services by the first quarter of 2004, starting
with selected markets in Texas and Missouri that represent about
150,000 high-speed-data homes passed.
Net2Phones cable voice platform utilizes the industrys
Packet Cable compliant standards and permits cable operators like
Cebridge Connections to deploy toll-quality residential telephone
service over their existing cable infrastructure.
Through the Net2Phone Cable Telephony model, Cebridge Connections
will maintain control of the service brand and Tier I customer and
technical support, while Net2Phone will support 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.
Ultimately, Cebridge Connections customers will be offered the
benefits of a bundled package of video, high-speed Internet access,
and telephone services.
About Cebridge/Cequel III
Cebridge Connections provides basic and digital cable television
service and high-speed Internet access. The companys 350,000
business and residential customers live and work in primarily suburban,
small-town, and rural communities across nine states. Cebridge is
committed to bringing these customers a level of service that matches
what their urban-based counterparts enjoy, and to that end, the
company is currently investing tens of millions of dollars to upgrade
its systems, improving picture quality, expanding television entertainment
choices, and enhancing the Internet experience.
Cequel III is a management company for growth-oriented firms in
the cable and telecommunications industries. In addition to Cebridge
Connections, the Cequel III team is involved with AAT Communications
Corporation, the nations largest privately held provider of
wireless tower sites.
About Net2Phone Cable Telephony, LLC
Net2Phone Cable Telephony (NCT) develops, integrates and manages
an outsourced customizable platform to provide cable operators with
the tools they need to offer high-quality voice solutions over their
current cable infrastructure. The NCT solution complies with cable
industry standards and reduces the costs and time to market associated
with building a proprietary cable telephony service, thereby allowing
cable operators to effectively compete with other established telephony
providers.
About Net2Phone
Founded in 1995, Net2Phone is a leading provider of voice services
over IP networks worldwide, enabling toll-quality calls between
computers, telephones, and broadband devices. Recognized as the
first Company to bridge the Internet with the public switched telephone
network, Net2Phone has routed billions of minutes of traffic over
its award-winning network. Incorporated within the company are (1)
Net2Phone Global Services, which sells retail VoIP solutions globally
and (2) Net2Phone Cable Telephony, which has developed a fully outsourced
standards-compliant telephony solution for cable operators. 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>.
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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