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iBasis Expands DirectVoIP™ Broadband Capacity in Europe to Support Growing Demand From Consumers, SME and Corporates

London Expansion Of Company's DirectVoIP Broadband Solution Enhances Performance and Capacity for Skype And Other Retail VoIP Providers in Europe

GLOBAL IP CARRIERS CONFERENCE, LONDON, U.K.— April 28, 2005 — iBasis, Inc. (OTCBB: IBAS), a leader in international long distance, VoIP, and prepaid calling cards, today announced that the company is expanding its regionalized global architecture, adding to its facility in London to meet growing demand for VoIP services among consumers, small-and-medium sized enterprises, and corporates in Europe. This expansion of iBasis' DirectVoIP Broadband capacity offers VoIP service providers fast and secure IP interconnections to the iBasis global VoIP network through the London facility to enable high quality international voice services for consumer and corporate customers.

Retail VoIP services have achieved explosive growth recently. By the end of 2004, more than 14.5 million consumers worldwide had subscribed to VoIP services, and adoption is forecasted to almost double annually for the next several years. Industry analyst firm Ovum has projected that consumer VoIP services will attract 200 million subscribers by 2008. Both new providers and incumbent carriers are expected to leverage the innovative features and cost savings of VoIP to compete more effectively for new customers. This trend is driving an increase in the demand for high quality and competitive international voice service that meets the specific needs of voice over broadband (VoBB) providers.

iBasis enhanced its global VoIP architecture to fulfill this accelerated demand from emerging VoBB providers, and to help them to expand their service portfolio by enabling their VoIP customers to call fixed and mobile phones directly at very competitive rates. iBasis has experienced great success in interconnecting with leading VoBB providers, including Skype, the Global Internet Telephony Company™ that has attracted more than 35 million users worldwide and 1.2 million customers for its SkypeOut premium service, which enables its customers to call any fixed or mobile phone worldwide for local rates.

"The expansion of our DirectVoIP Broadband architecture into our London facility enables us to offer a very convenient and complete solution that allows providers of retail VoIP services to connect their subscribers to virtually any phone in the world, whether it's a fixed or mobile phone," said Ofer Gneezy, president and CEO of iBasis. "This expansion gives us plenty of capacity to keep up with the rapidly growing demand for retail VoIP services, such as the SkypeOut service, and deliver the same high quality of service to other emerging VoIP providers and their subscribers throughout Europe."

"As a pioneer in VoIP services, iBasis is a strong partner for Skype as we expand our premium services that increase interconnectivity to ordinary fixed and mobile phones for our millions of customers worldwide," said Niklas Zennström, Skype's CEO and co-founder. "The extensive global footprint, regionalized architecture, and high call quality of the iBasis network has supported SkypeOut's dynamic growth by handling a large and rapidly increasing volume of Skype customers' Internet telephony calls to the traditional PSTN and mobile networks." iBasis Global VoIP Offering for Broadband and Retail VoIP Service Providers iBasis offers a comprehensive service portfolio for providers of VoIP and VoBB services to the consumer, SME, and corporates segments, making it possible for them to deliver retail international voice services at competitive prices without a large capital investment in infrastructure and at reduced operational costs. iBasis' offering includes:

  • a fast and secure IP interconnection to the iBasis global VoIP network through the DirectVoIP Broadband regionalized architecture, which now includes our facility in London and provides support for multiple protocols and devices, network-to-network SIP authentication, and trans-coding capabilities using SIP proxies, and Session Border Controllers and is fully redundant for optimized service reliability;

  • high quality international routing service via PremiumCertifiedTM routes that deliver the highest quality and stability for international termination of consumer telephony;

  • a fully-managed solution for international traffic by leveraging iBasis patent pending real time traffic monitoring and management technology and Web-based customer care platform that provides online access to dynamic reporting tools and up-to-date traffic information;

  • support for cooperative marketing programs and customized global calling plan promotions based on iBasis' sophisticated traffic reporting, such as most frequently used international routes, calling times, and financial analysis that can be used to create compelling promotions.

In expanding its DirectVoIP Broadband infrastructure in London, iBasis has added redundant session border controllers that enable regionalized support for authentication, signaling, transcoding, and other integral functions of high quality global consumer VoIP service. As a result, VoBB providers are able to extend their international voice services quickly and securely. iBasis' cooperation with VoBB providers in helping them to roll out competitive international calling plans allows them to stay focused on growing market share and increasing revenue per user in the new Internet phone business.

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 world1. For three consecutive years service providers named iBasis the best international wholesale carrier in ATLANTIC-ACM's annual International Wholesale Carrier Report Card2. 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 2003 data compared with iBasis annualized Q1 2004 traffic volume.

2 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.