iBasis Sets New Standard for Portability, Flexibility with iBasis SpeechPortTM VoiceXML 2.0 Application Hosting Service

Carrier-grade hosting environment built with SpeechWorks standards-based technology

BURLINGTON, MA - May 20, 2002 - iBasis, Inc., (Nasdaq: IBAS), the leader in Internet-based voice communications, today announced commercial availability of the iBasis SpeechPortTM VoiceXML 2.0 platform built using technology from SpeechWorks International, Inc. (Nasdaq: SPWX), the global leader in speech recognition and text-to-speech (TTS) technologies and services. This third generation SpeechPort application service provider (ASP) environment offers enterprises a flexible, cost-effective hosted solution to quickly deploy speech applications based on industry-standard VoiceXML 2.0.

"iBasis SpeechPort provides a carrier-grade VoiceXML hosting environment that will expand the use of standards-based speech solutions for business critical applications," said Steve Chambers, chief marketing officer at SpeechWorks International. "The flexibility of an ASP environment allows enterprise customers to respond rapidly to changing customer needs and call volume requirements without investing significant time and money in on-premise infrastructure."

iBasis SpeechPort is an ASP environment that helps enterprises and carriers grow revenues and enhance customer loyalty and satisfaction with automated, phone-based customer self-service applications. As an outsourced, hosted solution, iBasis SpeechPort enables organizations to minimize the operating and capital costs of phone-based self-service applications, while maintaining tight control over mission-critical data and systems. SpeechPort supports rapid application development with speech recognition, text-to-speech, and extensive back-end integration capabilities. Key elements of the ASP solution include:

Carrier-grade OA&M (Operations, Administration & Monitoring)

Active Monitoring Service

Business Intelligence

Speech Application Framework

Enterprise Access Adapter technologies

iBasis Speech Solutions has more than a decade of experience providing complex, high-volume customer care applications to Fortune 500 companies including AT&T, Kelly Services, Home Shopping Network, H&R Block, MCI, Morgan Stanley, and Western Union. In January 2002, iBasis SpeechPort was awarded 2001 Product of the Year by Communications Solutions^® Magazine and in February 2002, was named 2001 Product of the Year by Customer Interaction Solutions^® Magazine.

Market Leading Speech Technology
iBasis SpeechPort is built using OpenSpeech Browser and other speech technologies from SpeechWorks. SpeechWorks OpenSpeech Browser speeds development of high performance VoiceXML platforms by providing expertly crafted foundation components that are suitable for a variety of architectures. OpenSpeech Browser includes SpeechWorks OpenSpeech RecognizerTM, a speech recognition engine optimized for VoiceXML, and SpeechifyTM software, a natural sounding TTS engine, to deliver an outstanding caller experience.

"By using OpenSpeech Browser, iBasis saved development time and money without compromising platform reliability, scalability or performance," said Charles Skibo, president of iBasis Speech Solutions. "SpeechWorks solutions deliver the high quality speech technologies demanded by our large scale enterprise and telecom customers, allowing us to focus on what we do best - running a carrier-grade ASP environment that helps our customers deliver higher performance self-service with high customer satisfaction."

SpeechPort will support SpeechWorks OpenSpeech DialogModulesTM, VoiceXML-based building blocks that free developers from recreating software to handle common dialog tasks. For example, the complexities of collecting a customer's name and address can be replaced by a single invocation of the Name and Address DialogModules, saving costly development time and ensuring a high quality user interface that efficiently guides the caller through the collection process. Name and Address DialogModules enable companies to automate information capture that cannot be handled by touch-tone systems, resulting in substantial cost savings by reducing the demand for live agents.

Availability
iBasis SpeechPort is available today. For more information about iBasis SpeechPort, please visit www.ibasis.com/services/speechsolutions.

Don't Miss Global Speech Day - May 21-22, 2002
Join SpeechWorks for its second annual Global Speech Day, a live and free 2-day Web event May 21-22, 2002. Global Speech Day features top business and technical minds leading the way in the deployment of and vision for speech solutions and services. This year's international event includes presentations and interactive panels from leading companies and analyst firms such as ABN AMRO, America Online, Datamonitor, iBasis, Intel, InterVoice-Brite, The Kelsey Group, Merlin Telecom, Microsoft, Nortel Networks, Wildfire, Yankee Group and many others, along with online chat, breaking news, and live audience polls. If you are interested in the speech industry and where it is headed, you won't want to miss Global Speech Day 2002. For more information and registration, visit http://prg.globalspeechday.com. 

About SpeechWorks International
Through the power of SpeechWorks technologies, the human voice is all a person needs to access instant information and conduct transactions from a phone or device. Around the world, customer service innovators such as America Online, CIBC Bank, Microsoft, OnStar and United Airlines are realizing returns on SpeechWorks applications that consistently delight and serve customers 24 hours a day. With over 170 partners, SpeechWorks (Nasdaq: SPWX) delivers natural language speech recognition, speaker verification and text-to-speech (TTS) solutions to leading corporations, telecommunications providers, device manufacturers and government organizations worldwide. For a description of our products, services and unique customer programs such as SpeechWorks Here S.T.E.P.TM (Speech Technology Evaluation Process) call 617.428.4444 or visit www.speechworks.com.

About iBasis
Founded in 1996, iBasis (Nasdaq: IBAS) is the leader in Internet-based voice communications. iBasis delivers toll quality international voice services and provides the infrastructure for hosted communications solutions, including speech-enabled content, e-commerce and customer service applications. The company's customers include many of the largest carriers and enterprises in the world, including AT&T, Cable & Wireless, China Mobile, China Unicom, ExxonMobil, H&R Block, Home Shopping Network, Morgan Stanley, NTT, Qwest, Telefonica, Telenor, Telstra, Sabre Group, Sprint, Western Union, and WorldCom. iBasis' hosted, enhanced service solutions include SpeechPort^TM, a scalable, customizable ASP environment for speech-enabled business solutions. The iBasis Network is the world's largest international Cisco Powered Network for Internet Telephony. iBasis is listed in both the Russell 2000® and Russell 3000® Indexes. The company can be reached at its worldwide headquarters in Burlington, Massachusetts, USA at 781-505-7500 or on the Internet at www.ibasis.com.

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Assured Quality Routing and iBasis are registered marks; The iBasis Network, Internet Central Office, Internet Branch Office, IP CallCard and SpeechPort are trademarks of iBasis, Inc. or its subsidiaries. Cisco and Cisco Powered Network are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SpeechWorks, OpenSpeech Browser Platform Integration Kit, Speechify, OpenSpeech DialogModules, OpenSpeech Recognizer and SpeechWorks Here S.T.E.P. are trademarks or registered trademarks of SpeechWorks International, Inc. in the United States and other countries

Except for historical information, all of the expectations, projections and assumptions contained in the foregoing press release, including those relating to the company's current expectations regarding revenue growth, sources of revenue, margin improvement and future capital expenditures constitute forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and involve risks and uncertainties. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, (i) the extent of adoption of the company's services and the timing and amount of revenue generated by these services; (ii) fluctuations in the market for and pricing of these services; and (iii) the other considerations described as "Risk Factors" in iBasis' Annual Report on Form 10-K for its fiscal year ended December 31, 2001, and the company's other SEC filings. We have no current intention to update any forward-looking statements.