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Globacom Selects iBasis for International Voice Services

Second National Operator in Nigeria, Africa's Fastest Growing Telecom Market, Connects to The iBasis Network to Expand International Service

BURLINGTON, MA— April 11, 2005 — iBasis, Inc. (OTCBB: IBAS), a leader in international long distance, VoIP, and prepaid calling cards, today announced that Globacom, the second national operator in Nigeria, has interconnected with The iBasis Network™ for international voice services. The interconnection with iBasis enables Globacom to route international voice traffic over The iBasis Network, the leading global VoIP network, as well as complete calls for iBasis over Globacom's fixed and mobile networks in Nigeria.

Globacom will benefit from the lower capital and operational costs of the iBasis VoIP infrastructure and will have immediate access to its global footprint, which comprises more than 100 on-net countries. Globacom leverages iBasis operational expertise in managing international routing and also benefits from iBasis proprietary technologies - Assured Quality Routing® and PathEngine™, which deliver consistently high quality and call completion.

By providing Tier One quality international service to carriers, iBasis has become one of the world's 10 largest carriers of international traffic1 and continues to increase its market share of international voice traffic. iBasis currently carries more than 16% of all international VoIP traffic2.

"We are very pleased that Globacom has chosen iBasis for their international voice traffic needs," said Ofer Gneezy, president and CEO of iBasis. "As Nigeria engages with the global economy, interconnection to The iBasis Network offers Globacom greater scalability to accommodate the potentially explosive growth of its market." Globalcom joins iBasis' growing customer base of more than 290 carriers worldwide, who rely on iBasis to complete their international calls over the company's global VoIP network and to provide a reliable and growing source of inbound traffic from which they derive termination revenue. In 2004, the iBasis network carried approximately five billion minutes of international calls.

"We are in a highly dynamic market," said Rakesh Gupta, Head of International Carrier Services, Globacom. "We have the fastest growing network in Nigeria with more than 1.5 million subscribers, and we need reliable partners like iBasis that will help us to sustain this growth. By providing high quality of service while expanding our global communications footprint, iBasis allows us to focus on the core of our operations and on rapidly growing our customer base."

With a population of over 120 million, Nigeria has witnessed impressive development of its telecommunications market, driven predominantly by the explosion in mobile telephony. As with most of iBasis' African interconnections, the relationship with Globacom expands the company's mobile coverage in a country where mobile telephony is the predominant and fastest growing mode of telecommunications.

About Globacom

Globacom has consistently been in the forefront of increasing the value proposition to subscribers. It was the first Nigerian telecommunication network to introduce the preferred Per Second Billing system, the Multimedia Messaging Service, Text 2 Email, Mobile Internet, Glo Direct, Magic Plus, N1SIM and free connection for Post Paid subscribers. The network is also regarded as the fastest growing GSM network in Africa, ramping-up over one million subscribers in its first nine months of operation. Globacom is the only 2.5G network in Nigeria, making it the most advanced telecommunication network in the country, and the vision of its promoters is to make it the biggest and best telecommunication network in Africa.

About iBasis

Founded in 1996, iBasis (OTCBB: IBAS) is a leading wholesale carrier of international long distance telephone calls and a provider of retail prepaid calling services, including the Pingo™ web-based offering and disposable calling cards, which are sold through major distributors and available at retail stores throughout the U.S. iBasis customers include many of the largest telecommunications carriers in the world, including AT&T, Cable & Wireless, China Mobile, China Unicom, MCI, Sprint, Skype, Telefonica, Telenor, and Telstra. iBasis has carried more than 13 billion minutes of international voice over IP (VoIP) traffic over its global Cisco Powered™ network, and is one of the ten largest carriers of international voice traffic in the world3. For three consecutive years service providers named iBasis the best international wholesale carrier in ATLANTIC-ACM's annual International Wholesale Carrier Report Card4. iBasis was also ranked among the fastest-growing technology companies in New England in the 2002, 2003, and 2004 Technology Fast 50 programs sponsored by Deloitte & Touche. 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.

The New England Technology Fast 50 program is presented by Deloitte & Touche and Hale and Dorr, in association with the sponsor, Mazonson Inc. In addition, Mass High Tech and Trinity Communications are associated with the program.

Assured Quality Routing, ConnectPoint, and iBasis are registered marks, Pingo, DirectVoIP, The iBasis Network, Internet Central Office, Internet Branch Office, and IP CallCard are trademarks of iBasis, Inc. Cisco and Cisco Powered are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

   
 
 
     

 

 


1 Telegeography 2005, (PriMetrica, Inc., 2004), 79; and iBasis 2004 traffic volume.

2 Ibid., 11.

3 Telegeography 2003 data compared with iBasis annualized Q1 2004 traffic volume.

4 ATLANTIC-ACM International Wholesale Carrier Report Card—2002, 2003, & 2004.

Assured Quality Routing and iBasis are registered marks, DirectVoIP and The iBasis Network are trademarks of iBasis, Inc. Cisco and Cisco Powered Network are registered trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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, profitability, future capital expenditures, and cash flows 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 and margin 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 the Company's most recent Forms 10-K and 10-Q, and the company's other SEC filings. We have no current intention to update any forward-looking statements.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Data
The Company provides certain financial data in addition to providing financial results in accordance with GAAP. This data is not in accordance with, or an alternative to GAAP, and may be different from Non-GAAP financial data used by other companies. This Non-GAAP financial data includes average revenue per minute, which the Company believes provides useful information, to both its management and investors about the Company's current performance.