Astral Telecom Implements Million Dollar Technology Upgrade for Voice over Cable Networks; Cisco Softswitch Technology to Support Better Quality for Voice over IP Services.

BUCHAREST, Romania -- Cisco Systems (Nasdaq:CSCO) today announced that Astral Telecom, Romania's largest electronic communication services provider, has completed the deployment of the Cisco BTS 10200 Call Control Softswitch solution in its national network. The new softswitch solution will allow Astral to better manage network resources, support high customer demand and deliver enhanced voice services for Astral's Triplay broadband voice, video and data services. Since launching its cable voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services in 2003, Astral has expanded its VoIP services at the national level and is signing up hundreds of new subscribers every week.

The Astral cable IP network uses Cisco technology extensively in the aggregation layers as well as PSTN and universal gateways to interconnect with national and international telephone networks. "Voice is an important component of our offering and the carrier-grade capability of the Cisco softswitch solution has helped to establish Astral as one of the main challengers to the incumbent operator in Romania," said Dinu Malacopol, CEO, Internet, Data & Telephony of Astral Telecom. "We aim to have the most competitive offerings in terms of pricing and state of the art service quality and Cisco provided a solution that met our needs for cost effectiveness and advanced features."

Business and residential customers of Astral's VoIP service benefit from free minutes for mobile, national and international calls, control of caller identity display and online traffic reports. The Astral Triplay service package also includes high-speed broadband Internet access, analog and digital cable, as well as telephony services.

"Our customer's success is the best demonstration of the quality of Cisco's solutions," said Bogdan Constantinescu, General Manager, Cisco Systems Romania & Republic of Moldova. "Cisco has worked closely with Astral Telecom over the past few years to create services that will help the company gain market share in the de-regulated telecommunication services market in Romania. The popularity of Astral's VoIP service is a clear measurement of the achievements of our collaboration."

About Astral Telecom

Astral Telecom S.A. is one of the Romanian leading integrated electronic communication services providers focused on delivering state of the art communication solutions.

Astral Telecom began its operations back in 1993 and positioned itself as a local cable television operator with headquarters in one of the most important historical and cultural centres of Transylvania -- Cluj Napoca. Astral Telecom had developed and successfully expanded its services on a national level, and by the beginning of 2004, grew into a national communication services provider with a strong presence in over 800,000 dwelling units. The company's cable operations are available at a national level in over 170 locations; at the same time the Internet services are available in over 100 of the most important Romanian locations. Astral signed interconnection agreements with landline operator Romtelecom and with both GSM 900 services providers, Connex and Orange, and with RDS and Zapp.

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