Thalamus Networks first in Europe to deliver broadband services to residential districts

Thalamus Networks first in Europe to deliver broadband services to residential districts Broadband company Thalamus Networks (former Advantech) will deliver broadband services to a residential district in Gothenburg, Sweden, which will be the first broadband connected residential district in Europe. Together with some 3.000 apartments the detached houses will be able to benefit from broadband services via Gothenburg Energy's fibre network. - We are very pleased with our collaboration with Gothenburg Energy, says Michael Drené, Sales Manager at Thalamus Networks. The homeowners will now be able to experience that a broadband connection can be so much more than fast access to the Internet. In conjunction with the expansion of the district heating Gothenburg Energy take the opportunity to create a complete broadband network, which mean that 16.000 detached houses in Gothenburg will be able to benefit from Thalamus broadband services, such as Internet, telephony, games, and video-on-demand, over the next few years. Progressively also tenants will be able to benefit from these services. - Over the past decade we have been building our optical network and today we deliver both data and telecom services to the City of Gothenburg and several telecom operators, says Bertil Nilsson, technical manager at Gothenburg Energy. Now also real estate owners, flat owners, and businesses are able to use broadband communications over our optical network. Thalamus Networks intends to make an IPO at OM Stockholm Stock Exchange during the third or fourth quarter this year. Facts * Examples of useful services concerning the tenants' and home owner's nearby environment and information are: the possibility to book your laundry hours, sauna and joint gathering rooms from your computer (thalamus® access), note boards with information from the landlords, buy&sell, apartment info (thalamus® info), possibility to record defaults (thalamus® net) etc, games, video-on-demand (thalamus® Internet) and various news; everything according to the tenants' wishes. During phases two and three, filing archives, chatting possibilities with other tenants, telephony, individual heating measurements, program-on-demand are to be offered. These services are available via Thalamus broadband portal. Since the landlords are offered to push certain parts of the portal, the tenants themselves will have a large opportunity to influence the content. * Thalamus Networks AB (www.thalamus.se) is an independent player in the rapidly growing field of broadband. The company offers the market's most extensive broadband service called Thalamus®. It includes Internet access that meets the requirements of the regular surfer as well as the most advanced remote access worker. At the same time Thalamus Networks is the only company that can meet the landlords' needs for energy management, information, media and telephony. Thalamus® is delivered over optical fibre, cable-TV and Ethernet (LAN), and in a near future also over wireless solutions. Thalamus Networks AB are currently in a strong phase of expansion, and has today offices in Ängelholm, Malmö, Halmstad, Göteborg and Stockholm. The company has provided services to Sweden's landlords since the start in 1987. Gothenburg Energy (www.goteborgenergi.se) For more information, please contact: Thomas Rebermark, Marketing Manager Thalamus Networks AB, Tel. +46 8 691 0907, Mobile. +46 703 240 193, E-mail: thomas.rebermark@thalamus.se Bertil Nilsson, Technical Manager Optical Networks, Gothenburg Energy, Tel. +46 707 62 61 56 Sofia Söder, Gothenburg Energy, Tel. +46 31 62 65 65. Mobile: +46 707 62 65 65 ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/04/04/20000404BIT01360/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/04/04/20000404BIT01360/bit0002.pdf