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New unique Ethernet offer for CEE from GTS

First end-to-end Layer 2 Ethernet platform to cover multiple countries in the region

Warsaw, 22 June, 2010 – GTS Central Europe (GTS), a leading telecommunications operator in the CEE region is enhancing its Ethernet infrastructure. Today, GTS Group has presented details of its new services based on its Ethernet platform, as well as plans for future development in this area. This new strategy uses the new Ethernet platform to give customers
a totally flexible and scalable portfolio of managed Layer 2 services, along with substantially reduced total costs of ownership (TCO). A unique advantage of the GTS Ethernet network is its dense coverage of the whole central Europe region.

“Our Ethernet technology provides a much higher data transfer efficiency than an equivalent standard broadband connection,’’ said Ignacio Irurita, CTO at GTS Group. “And this is one of the reasons why we are investing more than 10 million euro in the gradual expansion of our proprietary Ethernet network this year, including unrivalled coverage in five countries of central and eastern Europe. We expect demand for Ethernet services to grow by more than 20% annually from 2010 onwards; hence we want to be ready to satisfy the changing needs of our customers in this area.”

GTS has built its new carrier grade Ethernet network to offer a wide Ethernet product portfolio available everywhere in the CEE region to every business customer, especially for those with branches in multiple locations, so that they can achieve more effective administration and management of their networks. A telecommunication services portfolio has been developed for high-speed connection of local area networks as well.

Ethernet services are a perfect alternative to traditional leased line (SDH), and provide a wide range of benefits to customers:
• Fast transmission of large volumes of data, voice or video – ideal both for primary and secondary network connectivity, voice and video conferencing, and centralized applications
• Total bandwidth flexibility, scalability and with a wide range of capacity options
• Simple setup and administration
• Minimum investment expenditure – infrastructure changes are not required
• Guaranteed Service Level, rapid change requests, proactive network monitoring and excellent Customer Service: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week

Three services will be introduced – GTS Ethernet Line, GTS Ethernet LAN and GTS Ethernet NNI. These will be offered for different speeds up to the standard 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GigE), which gives the customer the freedom to select an appropriate speed suited to their preferences. In addition to this, GTS guarantees exceptional network reliability thanks to continuous monitoring, diagnostics, centralized administration and management.

GTS Ethernet Line was launched on June 17, 2010,and is offered in two versions:
Ethernet Private Line (EPL) – fully transparent port based service perfect for the connection of two sites.
Ethernet Virtual Private Line (EVPL) – port plus VLAN based service, which can be configured to support multiple EVCs on a single port. This is a perfect solution for connecting many locations in a hub-and-spoke native LAN. GTS Line is a fully managed high-speed service provided over Layer 2 Carrier Ethernet Network technology.

Aiming at international wholesale customers, GTS has also developed the Ethernet Network to Network Interface variant to enable re-selling of individual Ethernet Line connections and, later, Ethernet LAN connections via the Central Interface. E-NNI offers our wholesale customers an unrivalled platform to cover rapidly the whole CEE region using a single Ethernet interface.

In the third quarter of the year, the GTS Group plans to launch its GTS Ethernet LAN, offering multi-point L2 VPN connection.

The process of integration and expansion of the GTS Ethernet network began in November last year. A new Ethernet network was built upon existing fibre networks covering five countries of Europe: the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. During the first three months, 15 key nodes constituting the core of the network were installed in the largest European countries. The objective is to have more than 450 network nodes installed by the end of 2010 in those cities where the Group already operates proprietary fibre networks. GTS plans to introduce Ethernet POPs at key interconnection points in western Europe, e.g. Frankfurt and Vienna, in order to further enhance cooperation with international access providers.

About GTS Group
GTS Central Europe (GTS) is a leading provider of integrated telecommunications solutions in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. GTS has an extensive regional fibre optic network throughout the CEE region with network extensions to neighbouring countries such as Austria, the Balkans, the Baltic States, Russia, Turkey and the Ukraine. In the CEE countries of Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania, GTS has deep metro networks which enable voice, data, IP, MPLS and broadband communication services for local business customers as well as telecommunication carriers, mobile operators and content providers. GTS was awarded the “Best Wholesale Offering” of Central and Eastern Europe award by the Capacity magazine in 2005, 2007 and 2009. In 2009, the GTS generated revenues of EUR 384.5m and EBITDA of EUR 86m.

GTS is owned by a consortium of private equity investors, led by Columbia Capital and M/C Venture Partners, both US-based investors with extensive experience in the communications and technology-enabled services sectors, and Innova Capital, a leading private equity group focused on Central Europe. HarbourVest Partners, Oak Investment Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners round out the Consortium. More information is available via www.gtsce.com.


More information
Agnieszka Chrzanowska,
phone: +48 22 488 8082,
mobile phone: +48 695 911 072,
e-mail: agnieszka.chrzanowska@gtsce.com

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