New Industry Segment Holds Key to Quick Entry For New Competitors in Pan American Telecommunications Markets.

MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 15, 1999--

New Miami Switching Center Providing Inbound and Outbound

Ports, Network Management Services, Introduced at

Pan American Carriers Conference

International Gateway Service Providers (IGSPs), a little known new segment of the telecommunications industry, may hold the key to true competition for voice and data communications within the Pan American region. With switch partitioning now available from IGSPs, new network operators can gain access to and from the U.S. through Miami and the burgeoning and liberalizing telecommunications markets of Central and South America and the Caribbean, according to Jeanne Swanke, Vice President, General Telecom, New York.

Speaking here at the Pan American Carriers Conference, Ms. Swanke said, "IGSPs such as General Telecom provide existing and future network operators with tier- one partition switching services at a fraction of the cost of owning and operating their own. These services," she said, "eliminate security issues and the loss of independence operators may face when dealing with underlying carriers. Network operators come to us because we are not a carrier and therefore not interested in their customer base. Moreover," she said, "we can implement connections within 30 days."

Ms. Swanke said value-added services give network operators a high level of control over their business by using a modem-equipped PC or laptop. "For example," she said, "the laptop-enabled operations support system allows rapid rerouting or restoration of traffic flows. Other services include accessing and downloading call records for archiving and billing, and monitoring post-dial delay and answer seizure ratios."

Describing General Telecom's new 500-port DMS 250-300 Miami switch, Ms. Swanke said it meets interconnection requirements for the increasing number of overseas carriers, domestic IXCs, arbitrageurs and other network operators participating in the Pan American region's international wholesale telecommunications market. "This should be an attractive service for operators negotiating direct agreements with the service providers abroad," she said, noting that the operators can interconnect with other carriers in Miami instead of paying for extensions to New York. "Because operators with links to one country typically swap minutes with carriers providing service to or from other countries, this switch will allow them to offer better rates to other locations," she added.

Ms. Swanke said General Telecom is the original and leading independent gateway provider of tier-one partition switching and network management services in the United States. With linked Nortel DMS 250-300 switch facilities in New York, Los Angeles and Miami, General Telecom provides confidential and secure interconnections between national and international carriers, network operators, resellers, arbitrageurs and others wishing to gain fast, economical access to domestic and international telecommunications service markets.