European broadband capacity provider involved in major new deal with Utfors

European broadband capacity provider involved in major new deal with Utfors The Swedish broadband operator Utfors is selling an additional duct and fiber-cable in the broadband ring. This time the buyer is Pangea, a European telecommunications operator. Pangea is developing a state of the art communications network linking seven countries in Northern Europe and Scandinavia. In addition, Pangea is purchasing dark fiber from Uteb East AB, which is half-owned by Utfors and owns the sea cable between Sweden and Finland. Utfors is in turn buying dark fiber in the section of Pangea's broadband network that links Copenhagen and many other large Danish cities with Hamburg. This will be a cornerstone in Utfors expansion in Denmark and will allow it to add another 1000 km to its planned broadband network, bringing the total to 5,500 km. Pangea Ltd. (www.pangea.bm) was incorporated in January 1999 to identify business opportunities leading to the provision of enhanced telecommunications infrastructure and services meeting the world's growing demand for broadband voice, data, video and Internet transmission capacity. Based in Hamilton, Bermuda, Pangea Ltd. also has offices in Rye, New York and Amsterdam, the Netherlands In November, Utfors sold two ducts in the Swedish broadband network via Uteb AB, of which it owns half, to KPN-Qwest. KPN-Qwest is a listed Dutch data- and telecoms company. It is owned by Qwest, one of the world's largest data- and telecoms operators, and the Dutch company KPN, one of Europe's leading telecoms companies. In total these contracts represents a sales value to Utfors (including Uteb and Uteb East AB) exceeding 80 million euro. The purchase value for Utfors for dark fiber in the danish ring is approximately 10 million euro. Jan Werne, MD at Utfors, says: "This is an excellent deal, and it is wholly in line with the company's strategy. We see it as evidence that our business concept is sound. Utfors will be able to free up major resources for the operator business and for further expansion. The agreement with Pangea is only one of many now under way. Together with the KPN-Qwest agreement, it means that we are ahead of schedule." Facts about Utfors: Utfors is a leading Swedish data- and telecoms operator with its own infrastructure. It supplies IP based (Internet Protocol) services to companies and the private market, with a focus on the Nordic region. During 2000, Utfors will be completing a 4500 km long broadband network for data and telephony, consisting of underground ducts for the installation of fiber cables and sea cables with fiber optics. Some parts of the network are jointly owned with the Dutch partner Ebcon B.V., which offers the market the opportunity of purchasing ducts in the ring linking Helsinki, Stockholm, Oslo and Gothenburg. Utfors' broadband network connects the 50 largest cities in southern and central Sweden, as well as Oslo, Copenhagen, other major Danish cities and Helsinki. A new generation of corporate services, IP-portals, will be supplied in 2000 that will make it possible to provide broadband services on a large scale. Utfors has about 150 employees in Stockholm, Uppsala, and Överkalix and has more than 200,000 telephony and Internet customers. Utfors is owned by Norsk Vekst and Litorina Kapital, along with a number of other institutional investors. For more information, please contact: Jan Werne, Managing Director, Utfors AB Tel: +46 8 5270 2540, +46 8 70 848 2540 e-mail: jan.werne@utfors.se Utfors' homepage: www.utfors.se Stephen E. Lovas E-post: lovas@pangea.bm Pangeas homepage: www.pangea.bm ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/01/12/20000112BIT00020/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/01/12/20000112BIT00020/bit0002.pdf