MILAN, ITALY -- (MARKET WIRE) -- December 4, 2006 -- ITU Telecom World -- Cisco® (NASDAQ: CSCO)
announced today that FASTWEB, Italy's second-largest fixed
telecommunications services provider, has chosen to deliver significant
enhancements to its national network with the Cisco Internet Protocol
Next-Generation Network (IP NGN) architecture. This significant upgrade,
implemented by Italtel, a Cisco strategic alliance partner, will expand
FASTWEB's national network capacity and enhance quality-of-service (QoS)
capabilities in order to support the rising demand for standard- and
high-definition video services and the continuing growth of its consumer
and business customer base. As of September 30, 2006, FASTWEB had 957,400
customers of which 84 percent were residential and 16 percent were
business, and revenues of EUR 897.4 million, up 32 percent from the
corresponding figure in 2005.
"The Cisco IP NGN architecture, with its modular upgrade and service
flexibility capabilities, fits very well with our business approach of
bringing continuous improvement and innovation to our customers, whilst
maintaining strong financial performance for our investors," said Guido
Roda, ICT services director at FASTWEB. "Our customers value the quality of
our broadband services, and the expertise that Cisco brings is helping us
maintain our excellent reputation in this area."
FASTWEB was the first operator in the world to develop an IP-based
telecommunications network offering voice, data and video over the same
high-speed connection using a combination of fiber-to-the-home /
fiber-to-the-business (FTTH / FTTB) and digital subscriber line (DSL)
networks. FASTWEB offers an extensive range of consumer and business
services, including voice and video telephony, 20-megabits-per-second and
faster broadband Internet connectivity, virtual private networks (VPNs),
audio and video streaming, tele-surveillance, digital and interactive TV,
and
video-on-demand services. It boasts one of the highest average revenues per
household in the European telecommunications industry, and among recently
established alternative carriers, it has one of the highest EBITDA margins
(earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization divided by
revenue).
"FASTWEB was the first operator to fully embrace IP, and it has shared the
same vision as Cisco of multiple services and applications delivered over a
single highly efficient next-generation network," said Gianmatteo Manghi,
challengers service provider director, Cisco Italy. "The continuing
success and growth of FASTWEB is the best proof we have of the power of the
network as an ideal platform for business, entertainment and
communications."
FASTWEB is continuing the upgrade of the Cisco 12000 Series Routers
installed at its core points of presence from 2.5 gigabits per second to
10-Gbps capacity links. It is also deploying a new range of Cisco Interface
Flexibility (I-Flex) modular shared port adapters (SPAs) and SPA interface
processors (SIPs) for the Cisco 12000 Series and 7600 Series Routers. The
Cisco SPA/SIP portfolio offers a rich set of QoS features for premium
service delivery.
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