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Pingo to Give Away 'Free Calls for Life*' as Part of Birthday Celebration

iBasis Prepaid Calling Card Service Celebrates First Anniversary with Sweepstakes, Contest Prizes and Double Bonuses

BURLINGTON, MA— October 11, 2005 — Pingo®, the prepaid calling card service of iBasis (OTCBB: IBAS), is celebrating its first birthday by giving away Free Calls for Life* to two lucky winners. The prepaid virtual calling card service is an easy way for consumers to take advantage of the cost savings of VoIP, without having to replace phone lines or install technical equipment in their homes or offices. Using iBasis' global VoIP network, Pingo offers consumers significant savings on high quality long distance calling service, which they can purchase via credit or debit card over the web at www.pingo.com. Mobile phone users, for example, can save as much as 90% on international calls by using Pingo's toll-free access and lower rates on international calls. Pingo gives consumers the opportunity to take advantage of the iBasis global VoIP network, the same network that the company has used to become one of the ten largest carriers of international phone calls in the world.

During Pingo's birthday celebration, which started October 7 and runs to November 15, every new customer who opens a Pingo account, as well as every current customer who recharges their account will be entered into a drawing for one of the grand prizes - free long distance calling for life*. Pingo customers who refer friends to Pingo through its Refer-a-Friend feature, will also compete for a second "free long distance for life*" grand prize, to be awarded to the customer who successfully refers the most new Pingo customers during the celebration.

In addition to the grand prizes, Pingo's celebration includes two one-time $100 bonuses to be given away randomly to new members or customers who recharge their accounts during the celebration period. Plus, new Pingo users who open a $20 account and those who successfully refer new Pingo customers will be rewarded with a bonus of $10 of free calling time, double the normal $5.

"We launched Pingo a year ago to provide consumers with the savings of a superior prepaid calling card combined with tremendous convenience features like PINpass™ PIN-less dialing, RateWatcher™, and international access," said Ofer Gneezy, president and CEO of iBasis. "We're excited that with the Free Calls for Life sweepstakes, for two lucky winners, Pingo will truly be the last calling card they will ever need."

The winners of the Free Calls for Life grand prizes will have their Pingo accounts automatically recharged up to $2,000 annually. At Pingo's average calling rate, that represents more than 8.5 hours per week of free long distance calling. The winners will be announced on the Pingo Website (www.pingo.com) on November 21, 2005 and individually notified by mail or email.

About iBasis

Founded in 1996, iBasis (OTCBB: IBAS) is one of the ten largest carriers of international voice traffic in the world and a provider of retail prepaid calling services, including the Pingo® web-based offering (www.pingo.com) and disposable prepaid 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 and VoIP providers in the world, including AT&T, Cable & Wireless, China Mobile, China Unicom, MCI, Sprint, Skype, Yahoo BB, and Telefonica. 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.

   
 
 
     

 

 


1 Telegeography 2005 data compared with iBasis 2004 traffic volume.

2 ATLANTIC-ACM International Wholesale Carrier Report Card - 2002, 2003, 2004, & 2005.

iBasis and Pingo are registered marks, The iBasis Network and the last calling card you'll ever need are trademarks or servicemarks of iBasis, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Sweepstakes winners will be selected at random from all Pingo customers who have signed up, recharged their account, or otherwise entered the contest. No purchase is necessary. All referees must be new customers, and must activate their account by November 15th, 2005. For the Refer-a-Friend contest, all referrals must be made through Pingo's automated refer-a-friend system and logged through the system to be considered. There will be no exceptions. Only open to U.S. citizens over the age of 18 years. Void where prohibited. Complete rules and conditions are available on the Pingo website.

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' 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.