NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., June 1, 2000 (PRIMEZONE) - VoIP Telecom, Inc. (OTCBB:VOPT) is pleased to announce today that it has signed an agreement with VoIPIndustry.com, Inc. to launch the worlds first VoIP Portal and VoIP Industry Consortium. VoIP Telecom, Inc.'s strategic plan is to utilize VoIPIndustry.com to build a leading global consortium of Voice over Internet Protocol industry leaders.
VoIP Industry.com, "The VoIP Industry Connection", is a virtual community that offers a broad array of Voice over Internet portal products and services. Users will have access to VoIP industry related content including a VoIP industry consortium, VoIP business to business marketplace, e-commerce, distribution, consumer and business products, hardware, software, white papers, news, and stock analysis.
Similar to other successful industry consortiums such as ASPIndustry.com, whose founders include ASP industry leaders FutureLink (Nasdaq:FTRL) and Cisco Systems (Nasdaq:CSCO). The ASP Industry Consortium was launched in May 1999 as an international advocacy group of 25 companies who came together to promote the application service provider industry by sponsoring research and educating the marketplace. The consortium recently marked its first anniversary with nearly 500 member companies. Since the launch, ASP Industry Consortium spokespersons have been quoted in hundreds of stories around the world, reaching an estimated billion-plus readers and viewers. In addition, the International Telecommunications Union has invited the ASP Industry Consortium to become a member and help educate the telecommunications community worldwide, including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, about the benefits of the ASP model.
The VoIP Industry Consortium welcomes involvement by a broad spectrum of participants. Any organization who has an interest in furthering the awareness and growth of the VoIP industry is eligible to join the Consortium. VoIP Industry Consortium members will set the direction of the VoIP industry and create business opportunities together. Members will have access to research sponsored by the consortium and access to the consortium's framework of best practices for delivering VoIP solutions.
About VoIP Telecom Inc.
VoIP Telecom strategic vision is to become a leader in converging conductivity solutions by building a major consortium of the highest quality VoIP entities in order to obtain a significant market share of international long distance traffic in North America, Europe, Asia, Russia, China and the Middle East. The company is focused on the deployment of worldwide digital, voice and data communications via VoIP, fiber optic, Internet circuit, satellite and public switched telephone networks.
VoIP Telecom's entry into the fast-paced, highly profitable global telecommunications marketplace is concentrated on VoIP via an acquisitions program to include two companies which operate as 100% subsidiaries (ACCESS Network Limited (ACCESS) and International Communications & Equipment (ICE)), and one company in which a 49% interest will be evident NEX Telecom Co. Ltd. (NEX).
ACCESS is a Singaporean enterprise formed in 1999 to take advantage of VoIP and ancillary telecom opportunities in Asia, one of the most explosive digitized telecommunications arenas in the world. The company's business plan calls for a network to be established to handle over 400 million voice minutes annually with expected gross revenues projected to be in excess of $30 million.
ICE is a high growth oriented telecommunications company, founded in 1996 in Kirkland, Washington, with an aggressive business plan centered on a joint venture agreement to provide VoIP long distance carrier services for 89 regional carriers in Russia. ICE also has commenced negotiations with exchange carriers in Germany to transport traffic to Russia and has identified initial contracts for 3 million minutes per month outbound. Subject to equipment installation, over the next three years ICE estimates achieving at least 500 million voice minutes per year in Russia alone. In addition, ICE has projects pending and alliances forged in Thailand, Malaysia, Ukraine, Poland, Malta, Lebanon, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Jordan, Libya, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, Italy, Greece, France, Norway, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
With headquarters in Seoul, NEX was formed in 1998 to provide a full complement of Internet voice and data services. It is the first international VoIP telecommunications company bearing its own network and service supporting facilities in Korea. The company currently supplies voice, data, facsimile and Internet-related VoIP telephone services over its network, as well as more enhanced Internet multimedia services via a wide range of transmission media, including its own leased fiber optic cable, satellite and wireless networks.
In January 1999 NEX established the Pacific Asia Telecom Group (PATG), and is acting as a PATG hub. PATG networks have been connected to NEX partners in the United States: Bitro Communications, www.bitro.com; Cosmobridge, www.cosmobridge.com , and iBasis; Japan (Telematrix); China (China Unicom); Hong Kong (oriental Telecom Services); The Philippines (Mainstream); Malaysia (Next Telecom); Australia (Nexcell) and New Zealand (Cosmobridge New Zealand).
About VoIP
VoIP based networks are lower cost alternatives to the traditional LD calling solutions. According to Gartner Group's Dataquest - Global Voice-over-Packet Services Market will Grow to $87 Billion by 2004 and Retail VoIP Services are to Boom from $443 Million in 1999 to $19 Billion in 2004. Frost and Sullivan predict that by 2001, the industry is projected to grow 149% annually, progressing to a $1.89 billion market. Forrester Research, Inc. projects that by 2004, Internet telephony will capture $3 billion from traditional telecom services. By 2006, according to ESSL Technologies, 35% of all long distance calls will be handled by Internet telephony. Finally, that figure will jump to 50% by 2010, according to Vint Cerf of MCI.
USA TODAY ran a cover story not too long ago touting the power of the Internet. It was titled, "Internet could revolutionize phone service-New phone technology could be 'unstoppable.'" The same article also said, "Telephone calls over the Internet, dismissed not long ago as a high-tech version of ham radio, are suddenly taken very seriously by the communications establishment...By 2002, the Internet could account for 11% of the U.S. and international long-distance voice traffic, up from just .2% last year, predicts analyst Mark Winther of International Data Corp." The same article went on to quote the International Telecommunications Union as warning its members that losing just 6% of the U.S. telephone traffic to IP telephony leaders such as Net2Phone (Nasdaq:NTOP) could eliminate profits.
Forward-Looking Statements
This news release may contain certain forward-looking statements with respect to operations and business, the results of which could differ materially from those discussed. Risks and uncertainties are detailed in reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by the company.