Storm Telecommunications makes major fiber network acquisition from Telia

Storm Telecommunications underpins 'o-commerce' strategy with major fibre and collocation acquisition from Telia - Access to target markets achieved by 1st intelligent optical networking services venture- London, UK - Storm Telecommunications (Storm) announces $US100 Million + acquisition from Telia of an extensive dark fibre network to support Storm's 'o-commerce', bandwidth on command, strategy that meets the needs of event driven, high growth communications and e-business companies in Europe and the USA. Today's agreement with Telia is a key milestone in the implementation of Storm's 'o-commerce' strategy. It places Storm in the driving seat for the crucial management of the rapidly increasing but unpredictable bandwidth requirements of emerging carriers, ISPs and Corporates. "o-commerce is a high level facilitator of other forms of commerce, predominantly e-commerce, allowing customers to operate in a faster, better and more flexible way" said Steve Sanderson, Storm's chief executive officer. " 'o-commerce' - unlike current providers of bandwidth - offers customers bandwidth on command. Bandwidth on command empowers customers, giving them the ability to control the bandwidth they acquire, switching it in response to their event-driven requirements." Sanderson stated that this strategic network acquisition is the foundation for Storm's powerful portfolio of optical switched services, StormWave, which will be brought to market in the coming months. The unique portfolio will offer customised networking, with fast bandwidth provisioning, whilst avoiding the expense to the customer of lighting and maintaining dark fibre themselves. Commenting on its deal with Storm, Marianne Nivert, President of Telia Network Services said: "Telia is delighted to play such a pivotal role in the development of Storm's o-commerce strategy by provisioning its extensive dark fibre network." Telia's Viking Network is a giant investment-intensive venture designed to expand Telia International Carriers extensive existing fibre-optic infrastructure, for total fully-owned and managed coverage of Scandinavia, Europe and USA. The infrastructure is designed as a multi-fibre optic network connecting all major cities of (Telecom) importance in Europe. In a separate deal, Storm recently announced the management buy-out of the UK-based carrier from founding shareholders, Norwegian telco Telenor AS, IXC Communications, Inc. and Clarion Resources Communications and is now backed by investment affiliates of Soros Private Equity Partners. For further information please contact: Storm Telecommunications Chris Moseley Miller/Shandwick Technologies +44 (0) 20 7950 2982 Telia: Anna-Carin Uddenberg Head of Press Service. Telia, BA Carrier & Networks + 46 8 713 28 42 or +46 70 530 40 63 anna-carin.a.uddenberg@telia.se Storm Telecommunications, the first OSP (Optical-switched Service Provider), is a substantial company with strong revenue growth and operations in 8 countries, and 11 international gateway voice switching hubs. In February 2000, Storm's management completed an MBO backed by investment affiliates of Soros Private Equity Partners to place Storm's new intelligent optical network in prime position to meet the e-business challenges of the new Millennium. Telia is the leading supplier of telecom-based information services in the Nordic/Baltic region. At the same time, "seamless" pan-European and global services are being realized through powerful alliances and partnerships in Europe and around the world. Annual turnover 1999 reached 52 121 MSEK and the number of employees amounted to approx. 30 600. ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/03/17/20000317BIT00380/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/03/17/20000317BIT00380/bit0002.pdf