Paraguay's National Telecom Carrier Interconnects to iBasis for International Calling

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BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- iBasis, a KPN company, today announced that Paraguay's national telecommunications carrier, Compañía Paraguaya de Comunicaciones S.A. (COPACO S.A.), has connected to iBasis for the exchange of international phone calls. iBasis is one of the world's leading wholesale carriers of international long distance calling, operating a global network that spans more than 100 countries and delivers more than two billion minutes of international voice traffic every month.

The IP-interconnect enables COPACO S.A.

The IP-interconnect enables COPACO S.A. to leverage the greater cost-efficiencies of iBasis' global network footprint, which includes both traditional TDM and advanced VoIP infrastructure, resulting in high quality, lower cost international calling for customers in Paraguay. The connection also extends iBasis' wholesale termination capabilities to Paraguay, providing more reliable routes and competitive pricing for its carrier customers and consumers of the company's retail prepaid calling cards and Pingo® web-based services (www.pingo.com).

The agreement enhances iBasis' already strong presence in Latin America, the world's most rapidly developing telecommunications market. According to Cisco Systems' recent Visual Networking Index, Latin American consumer and business IP traffic is expected to increase at a 51 percent compound annual growth rate between 2009 and 2014, faster than any other region of the world. Based on data from industry research firm TeleGeography, iBasis carries approximately 25 percent of the world's phone traffic to Latin America.

"We are happy to help COPACO achieve its goal of providing high quality, affordable international calling for its customers," said John van Vianen, CEO of iBasis. "Latin America continues to be a key growth market for iBasis. Furthermore, COPACO joins a long list of carriers that are taking advantage of the efficiency of IP for their international voice traffic. With the migration of international voice traffic to IP well underway, we look forward to helping our industry realize the significant operational and financial benefits. This includes full support of i3 Forum guidelines and continued development efforts with the GSMA on IPX."

COPACO S.A. is a state-owned carrier and the leading provider of broadband Internet access and fixed voice services solutions including local, domestic long-distance and international telephony. Specifically, the carrier's services encompass basic, corporate, public and GSM fixed wireless telephony. The company has approximately 280,000 lines currently in service. It also recently acquired mobile operator Hola Paraguay (Vox), previously owned by KDDI and Marcelo Toyotoshi, and has announced plans to expand into this service area in upcoming months.

"Through our partnership with iBasis we are now able to offer our customers cost-efficient calling, carried over a reliable, high quality voice network," said María Angélica Pellegrini, international business manager, COPACO S.A. "By leveraging iBasis IP infrastructure, we are not only prepared for significant growth in the short term, we are also in a strong position to expand into additional services in the future."

COPACO S.A., the Compañía Paraguaya de Comunicaciones S.A., was established based on the reorganization of the National Telecommunication Administration (ANTELCO) on November 15, 2001, and began operations on December 2 of that year. In 2005, COPACO launched a new service: to offer bandwidth, initially of 155 Mbps, based on a secure and scalable IP platform, edge network (international network) or part of the backbone, with the leading technology on the Paraguayan market and of the region's countries, with the aim of offering a Next Generation Network (NGN) for data to the country as a whole over a single packet-switched transport network providing good quality and different bandwidths for a wide range of services. COPACO now offers the service, via fiber optics, to the country's ISPs; to corporate clients; and to some governmental entities.

Wholly-owned KPN company

A wholly-owned KPN company, iBasis is a leading wholesale carrier of international long distance telephone calls and a provider of retail prepaid calling services and enhanced services for mobile operators. The company offers a comprehensive portfolio of voice termination services, value-added messaging, signaling and roaming services for many of the world's largest fixed and mobile operators and VoBB service providers. iBasis customers include KPN and its mobile operators, KPN Mobile, E-Plus, and BASE, and many other large telecommunications carriers such as Verizon, Vodafone, China Mobile, China Unicom, IDT, Qwest, Skype, TDC, Telecom Italia, and Telefonica. The company can be reached at its worldwide headquarters in Burlington, Mass., USA at +1 781-505-7500 or on the Internet at www.ibasis.com.