Esprit Telecom Signs Interconnection Agreement With France Telecom.PARIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 29, 1998--Esprit Telecom, one of Europe's leading independent telecommunications companies See telecom company. , today announced that it has completed a formal agreement with France Telecom for the interconnection of their respective telecommunications networks A telecommunications network is a of telecommunications links and nodes arranged so that messages may be passed from one part of the network to another over multiple links and through various nodes. . "This agreement is a critical step in our French strategy, making it far easier for French customers to link directly into our French network and, when fully operational, lowering our network costs in France," said David L. Oertle, chief executive officer at Esprit Telecom. In a separate announcement on 26 June, France's Administrative Supreme Court (Conseil d'Etat) reaffirmed Esprit Telecom's right to receive the single digit carrier select code '6'. The award of this code (also known as an "E Digit") is expected to be formalised Adj. 1. formalised - concerned with or characterized by rigorous adherence to recognized forms (especially in religion or art); "highly formalized plays like `Waiting for Godot'" formalistic, formalized by the French regulator in coming weeks and will make Esprit Telecom one of only six companies entitled en·ti·tle tr.v. en·ti·tled, en·ti·tling, en·ti·tles 1. To give a name or title to. 2. To furnish with a right or claim to something: to compete on equal terms with France Telecom. "The interconnect agreement Interconnect agreements on the Internet are of typically two forms: Peering and IP Transit. , combined with the imminent award of the 'E digit' 6 as our national carrier select code and a national public network operator (PTO PTO abbr. 1. Parent Teacher Organization 2. or p.t.o. please turn over 3. power takeoff PTO or pto please turn over Noun 1. ) license, gives us every tool we need to rapidly build Esprit Telecom into one of the most aggressive national competitors in France," said Antoine Leprince-Ringuet, managing director of Esprit Telecom France SA. About Esprit Telecom Esprit Telecom Group plc, a NASDAQ NASDAQ in full National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations U.S. market for over-the-counter securities. Established in 1971 by the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD), NASDAQ is an automated quotation system that reports on and EASDAQ See European Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotation. quoted company trading under the symbols "ESPRY" and "ESPR ESPR European Society of Paediatric Radiology ESPR Espressivo (music) ESPR Ethnicity and Social Policy Research Unit (University of Bradford) ESPR European Society of Paediatric Research " respectively, is one of the largest independent European telecommunications service providers A Telecommunications Service Provider or TSP is a type of Communications Service Provider that has traditionally provided telephone and similar services. This category includes ILECs, CLECs, and mobile wireless companies. . The company has sales offices in 26 major cities in the United Kingdom, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, France, Belgium, and Italy and "points of presence" in 31 cities on its pan-European fibre optic network. Esprit Telecom France SA was established in September 1994 and has its headquarters in La Defense, Paris. Currently, Esprit Telecom's French network has points of presence in Paris, Lille, Strasbourg, and Lyon. The company plans to extend its network throughout France over the next eighteen months. Notes to Editors: 1. The Interconnect Agreement is based on the regional PTO license granted to Esprit Telecom by the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Industry on 19 March 1998, and is in line with France Telecom's reference interconnect document for network operators and voice telephony providers. 2. Esprit Telecom has applied for an extension of its regional PTO licence to make the licence national in scope. The application for the extension has already been approved by ART and awaits the signature of the Ministry, expected in the coming weeks. At this time the existing interconnect agreement will be migrated to a full national interconnect with France Telecom at the lowest rates available. 3. In February 1998, Esprit Telecom was informed that it would receive one of only 6 single digit pre-subscription ("carrier access codes") available in France. Following legal challenges to the E digit award process, the French administrative high court (Conseil d'Etat) ruled on 26 June that the process was legal and the award of all existing codes should progress. 4. The "E-digit" carrier select code is a single digit access code derived from the recently introduced 10-digit French numbering scheme There are many different numbering schemes for assigning nominal numbers to entities. These generally require an agreed set of rules, or a central coordinator. The schemes can be considered to be examples of a primary key of a database management system table, whose table where "E" represents the first digit in the national numbering format. In order to spur competition in national and international long distance services, ART decided in July 1997 to allocate seven values for the E-digit to those operators planning to build a nationwide network. Further information about Esprit Telecom is also available on the Internet at: http://www.esprittele.com
CONTACT: Esprit Telecom Group plc
Glenn Manoff, 44 (0) 118 951 4010
or
Esprit Telecom France SA
Brigitte Deliry, +33 (1) 552 38000
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