Behind the Scenes at General Telecom

At General Telecom, our commitment to exceptional customer service requires we not only react to issues as they arise but that we dedicate ourselves to proactively resolving problems. Often times, our proactive attention to service delivery happens silently in the background, ensuring our customers never experience an outage. “If I’m doing my job right, then General Telecom's products and services should be seamless to our customers, allowing them to build their business instead of worrying about a myriad of network details,” stated David Richardson, Western Regional Operations Manager for General Telecom.

Over the years, General Telecom has created processes and protocols to proactively monitor the network and respond to unforseen events. For example, late in the afternoon on Friday May 21st, General Telecom's Network Operations Team notified the New York site operations of a potential service-affecting situation. The site's staff immediately responded by indentifying and isolating the equipment and contacting General Telecom's Technical Support and the Network Operations Center (NOC) to discuss possible remedies. The teams determined that the optimum course of action was to arrange for overnight transport of a new part, coordinate the Saturday delivery and dispatch of a technician and formulate the lowest risk-replacement strategy. On Saturday, the unit was replaced by Ardeshir Ghabarzadeh before the failure became customer-impacting. Of course, our customers may have noticed that May was like any other month at General Telecom, 99.999% up time and our operations team invisibly working in the background to ensure proactive service.

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Global Voice Expands Service Into the U.S.

Global Voice is a leading provider of VoIP products and services in Europe. Global Voice is headquartered in Madrid with a Point of Presence in the U.S., and provides VoIP-based calling card and prepaid card services, ASP services, and wholesale carrier routes. Their customer base includes service providers from around the world.

"General Telecom's VoIP Direct service enables us to expand our offering to service providers in the U.S.," stated Majid Khan, Senior Managing Director of Global Voice. "It is nice to know that I can concentrate on my business growth while General Telecom's team works as hard as they do to get me up and running."

For more information about Global Voice, please visit www.gvllc.net.

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New Thailand Carrier - AsiaXc

AsiaXc is a licensed service provider in Thailand, and a new member to General Telecom's Global Village. "We are glad that there is an outsourced telecom solutions provider like General Telecom to help us expand our market reach," stated Arthur Chaiyos, VP of AsiaXc. AsiaXc focuses on premium routes to all areas of Thailand. For more information, please contact Arthur Chaiyos at arthur@asiaxc.net.

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[ General Telecom in the News ]

FatPipe: Saddle Up!
Rocky Mountain News: Back to Basics: NGT begins to shine again with new building and go-forward strategy
A profile of New Global Telecom's services strategy and success in the industry.
Rocky Mountain News: My Cyberlife, Mark Bolton
Phone+ : What's Driving VoIP?

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[ Editorial Issues ]

General Telecom's Service Strategy
Enabling Your Growth

At General Telecom, we are very conscious of the fact that we grow as you grow – our success is directly linked to our customers’ ability to profitably expand revenue streams. As a result, our service strategy is both responsive to market needs as well as aggressive in terms of timeline. The figure below is a representation of that strategy and we would like to share some of our top-line thinking today, and for tomorrow.

One year ago, New Global Telecom acquired General Telecom to create the leading U.S. provider of outsourced network management services. And, since June 2003, we have been focused on evolution of our capabilities in a number of directions simultaneously.

TECHNOLOGY PLATFORMS
We currently handle 3-billion minutes of traffic for over 50 worldwide carriers on our TDM technology platform. Most of our customers – as well as many new players in the telecom market – now have interconnections with IP carriers. Our parent company, New Global Telecom, has been involved in the IP networking world for a number of years and during the past 12-months we’ve expanded our platform to encompass VoIP technology. Our pedigree in the voice telecom business, including proven systems, processes and experience, has already paid handsome dividends for us through the implementation and initial management of this new technology platform. And, extension of our platform to encompass VoIP technology has enabled rapid development of important new services to meet growing demands.

SERVICE PORTFOLIOS
Our traditional suite of Network Management Services (NMS) has encompassed two key areas: Outsourced Network Services and Network Operations Services (NOS).

The core of our Outsourced Network Services is a TDM-based switch partitioning service, currently offered on our Ericsson and Nortel TDM switch platforms. As a leading-edge NMS provider, we have developed advanced network management tools, such as our proprietary TrafficVision tool, which gives customers customizable reports for visibility into performance metrics such as ASR and ALOC.

Since Q4 of last year, we have offered both TrafficVision and Traffic Performance Alarming (TPA) – which permits user-defined performance thresholds and email messaging whenever trunk groups are underperforming – as standard services to all our TDM customers.

Our TDM NOS services also include industry-leading tools, such as SwitchVision, which permits remote monitoring of customer switch facilities. NGT’s 24x7 Network Operations Center (NOC) is the heart of our Network Management Services delivery to customers, day in and day out.

We have recently introduced several innovative IP services for carrier customers, as well. VoIP Direct and Virtual Local Loop (VLL) permit global carriers to operate both IP and traditional networks without the capital expenditures and operating costs of owning and operating both networks. These are simple solutions that facilitate TDM carriers’ ability to interconnect directly with VoIP carriers – this means expanded revenue through scalable service solutions.

General Telecom’s new IPartition is an IP-to-IP partition service that enables IP-to-IP network control and routing across gateways, using a variety of protocols. IPartition Basic Service enables IP carriers to trade traffic between other IP carriers and includes IP switching, IP-to-IP call control and routing. IPartition Premium Service has optional address screening or ‘topology hiding’ which enables signaling to one IP address so that customer/vendor interconnections remain private. For more on this topic, see the related article in this newsletter.

General Telecom is also working on development of advanced IP-centric network management capabilities that will leverage our knowledge and experience with traditional TDM NMS – these will be introduced soon under the VoIPVision product brand.

BUSINESS ACCELERATORS
General Telecom can customize solutions to meet your precise business requirements and, as a result, help accelerate revenue growth. Additionally, we have created the Global Village, which is also an important business accelerator for our customers. Through the online Global Village, our customers are able to conduct transactions with one another with NO transaction costs and minimal effort. Customers seeking routes, as well as those offering routes, can rapidly find each other in the Global Village. And, with General Telecom’s strategically located switch partitioning hubs in New York, Los Angeles and Miami, Global Village members have access to more carriers in more markets through any of our switch locations.

SUMMARY
General Telecom’s service strategy is best summed up by Lee Story, our Senior Vice President of Network Management Services – “Carriers in the market are demanding flexible support for the tremendous surge in their IP traffic, so we are continuing to expand our offering of partitioning services. In essence, we have now enhanced our current suite of outsourced support capabilities to include every possible combination of TDM and VoIP traffic. General Telecom now supports any-to-any voice switching so you can concentrate on your business, instead of technology.”

If you would like to speak with us about any of these services or if you have comments, please email sales@gentel.net or call (303) 239-1025.

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[ EVENTS ]

Comptel/Ascent "Advancing the Business of VoIP" Workshop

CEO Rich Grange spoke on May 18th at the Comptel/ASCENT “Advancing The Business Of VoIP” Workshop in Washington D.C. Rich presented a one-hour session on the transition from TDM to IP-based technology and services. The session was titled "Network Ops: Teaching Old Techs New Tricks" and covered the challenges and solutions for skill-set evolution and management of tasks needed to effectively support TDM-to-IP migration.

Rich presented in a model of VoIP service delivery and discussed the relevant network operations issues in the context of TDM-to-IP migration, including end-user support, network & facilities, and back-office capabilities. He also spoke about the key drivers for market penetration of VoIP services (including some of NGT’s own primary research), as well as the primary applications that are igniting consumer and business demand for VoIP.

Approximately 200 attendees filled the room for the standing-room only event. Rich was pleased to present relevant market information to the attendees and to share the podium with our peers as we all work to pioneer VoIP services.

To view Rich’s presentation, please click here.

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Upcoming Speaking Engagements

Rich Grange will be speaking again at the next Internet Telephony show. The panel discussion, titled “Introduction to Hosted VoIP: Service Provider” will cover the features and functionality of Hosted VoIP or IP Centrex solutions. The show runs from Oct 4-7th in Los Angeles, CA, and Rich's panel session is scheduled for Tuesday, October 5th.

For more information about the Internet Telephony show, please visit www.tmcnet.com/itexpo. To meet with Rich or part of our Sales team at this show, please email sales@gentel.net or call 303-239-1025.

Rich Grange also plans to present to the United States Telecommunications Association (USTA) at their annual convention, Telecom ’04, which takes place at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas October 9-13. Rich will be part of a panel session titled “OSS on Steroids: Mastering the New Operations Framework” where panel experts will share tips on how to introduce VoIP services into a legacy environment and still ensure smooth integration into existing OSS and billing systems. For more information on this upcoming show, please visit www.ustelecom04.com/conference04. To meet with Rich or part of our Sales team at this show, please email sales@gentel.net or call 303-239-1025

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Upcoming Events

SUPERCOMM
Dates: June 20-24, 2004
www.supercomm2004.com
Chicago, Illinois.

SuperComm is the world's largest annual all-inclusive exhibition and conference for communication service providers and private network managers.

New Global Telecom will be an active participant at SIP Summit 2004 in Chicago, June 21-23. Come visit us at our kiosk #13840Q in the SIP Pavilion, which will be located on the exhibition floor at SuperComm. If you are attending SuperComm, please let us know so we can meet with you there. We will be pleased to discuss our 6DegreesIP managed wholesale product suite with you. For more information about the SIP Summit, visit pulver.com/sipsummit or contact us directly at 303-239-1025 or sales@ngt.com.

Comptel/Ascent Miami
Dates: Sept 12-15, 2004
www.comptelascent.org/events/miami-fall04
Fontainebleau Hilton in Miami Beach, FL.

The Comptel/Ascent show is an anticipated event – this year’s fall show has an expanded (and sold-out) exhibit floor along with special sessions on IP-based technology. If you would like to meet with NGT or GT at this show, please email sales@ngt.com or call 303-239-1025.

If you'd like to meet with General Telecom at any of these shows, please send an email to sales@gentel.net or call 646-328-5800.

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[ Q&A ]

My legacy business is growing, but at this point, I only want to invest in new IP equipment — how can I continue to grow my legacy services?

As technology changes, many companies find themselves managing dual networks and staff experts for each network – sometimes including a separate Network Operations Center for each network technology. How can you continue to grow your legacy service or maintain its existing levels, while simultaneously growing services on new technologies? The answer is simple – outsource. Outsourced network management or network operations services provide users with the ability to maintain and grow services without additional capital expense. Most situations allow for a flexible solution that provides predictable monthly costs that scale with size of the business. And, outsourced solutions enable service providers to focus employees on training and growth for new technologies, often freeing resources for more in-depth training.

In addition, the reverse is also true – many companies want to grow IP services, but aren’t willing to commit capital expenses to a solution yet. These service providers benefit from outsourcing the IP components of their network to trusted IP experts. Whether you need TDM services, IP services or even TDM-to-IP services, General Telecom has a solution customized to suit your needs. For more information, please call 303-239-1025 or email sales@ngt.com.

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[ Telecom Tip ]

Modular Marketing Materials for Fast-Changing Times

In the fast-paced telecom world – particularly as new IP technologies and products are being rolled out – it is imperative that your Company communicate quickly, effectively and at reasonable cost to your customers and target prospect groups. At General Telecom and New Global Telecom, we have announced five (5) new product enhancements since the beginning of this year alone, with an additional major product announcement scheduled in the next month!

Each of your new product enhancements requires updates to Marketing materials. So, how do you keep costs under control? At our own Company, we have taken a modular approach to this challenge in order to permit effective cost management – we recommend that you look closely at this solution as well. “Module” means designing shells that can have a long shelf-life, and putting your more changeable information in a format that can be edited and printed locally on pre-designed insert pages. For example, we printed 4-color insert sheet shells that can run through our laser printers to update content as needed (refer to the General Telecom examples shown in the box). This permits rapid changes, printing and distribution to your Sales team – at a cost you can live with.

Our Marketing group would be delighted to share more information and ideas with you – just contact them by emailing solutions@ngt.com or calling (303) 239-1025.

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You are subscribed to General Telecom's and New Global Telecom's newsletter list, and will receive approximately one email a month as part of this subscription -- including the In the Loop Newsletter focused on carrier issues and 6DegreesIP News focused on VoIP. If this newsletter has been forwarded to you and you would like to subscribe, please click here: subscribe@gentel.net. If you wish to unsubscribe, please click unsubscribe@gentel.net. If you prefer to speak with General Telecom directly please call 303-239-1025. General Telecom, 600 12th St, Suite 200, Golden, CO 80401.
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