TDE.L Regulatory News (TDE)

6 Jun 2006 13:30

Cesky Telecom A.S.06 June 2006 > PRESS RELEASE - 6. 6. 2006> CESKY TELECOM AND THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION CONTINUE TO BRING BROADBAND INTERNETTO CZECH SCHOOLS CESKY TELECOM, a member of the Telefonica Group, and the Ministry of Education,Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (MSMT) signed an agreement in the scopeof providing the Communications Infrastructure for Public AdministrationInformation Systems, Addendum no. 7 to the Executive Agreement. The addendum concerns the continuation of providing schools in the CzechRepublic with the Internet. CESKY TELECOM wants to increase the currentconnection speed at most schools several fold to a standard of 2 Mbps/256 Kbps.By the end of the 2005/2006 school year this will amount to quadrupling thespeed for at least 2,000 schools that already have broadband ADSL connections.If a school shows interest, it can have its speed increased to up to 4 Mbps. Atthe same time, ISDN technology will be upgraded to ADSL at practically allschools connected to the Public Administration Communications Infrastructure. Petra Buzkova, the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports says the followingabout the closing of Addendum no. 7 to the Executive Agreement for thetransition to an across-the-board installation of broadband Internet in schools:"From the 2006/2007 school year, and in the KIVS, the new level of servicesensures a transition to a new standard of communications for schools. Theparameters of these services can enable students to work with electronic contentin the classroom and safeguards the integration of information and communicationtechnologies (ICT) into the implementation of educational programs. Furthermore,these services will be an alternative solution to connecting schools to theInternet and will be financed in a uniform manner in the scope of the grantpolicy for ICT services for schools after 2006." To increase speeds at schools that are currently connected to the Internet withlower speeds, CESKY TELECOM has been building new connection elements in thenetwork known as DSLAMs. "We are currently making an investment of CZK 150million in these localities," says Jaime Smith Basterra, Chairman of the Boardof Directors and CEO of CESKY TELECOM, a.s. "In addition to increasing speeds,we are also aware of the fact that the Internet should be accessible to allschools in the Czech Republic, which is why we have increased coverage to up to98% of all of our company's telephone lines in the Czech Republic," explainsSmith. In total, 3,500 schools in our country are already connected to theworldwide web through CESKY TELECOM and of these 2,500 have broadbandconnections. For 2,500 of these schools the operator is working on setting upbroadband connections and making other improvements to the quality of theservice. It continues to work intensively on making further improvements toservices for other schools for the new school year. The first of over 700 DSLAMs will be constructed at the beginning of June 2006and the last will be put into operation during the month of September 2006.Individual schools will be informed in advance of the dates of the constructionof the DSLAMs. For further information, please contact: MARTIN ZABKA Press Spokesman Tel: +420 271 463 359 Fax: +420 271 469 896 e-mail: tiskovy.odbor@ct.cz CESKY TELECOM, a. s., a member of the Telefonica Group, is the leadingtelecommunications company in the Czech Republic. Through its subsidiary companyEurotel Praha, spol. s r.o., it also has a significant presence in the Czechmobile services market. Further information about the firm and the services itoffers is available at www.telecom.cz, which was rated as BestWeb 2003 in theWebTop100 survey. Signum Temporis has consistently awarded CESKY TELECOM for being one of thedomestic capital market's most transparent firms in terms of providinginformation. Based on an open vote of specialists, members of the press and anine-member committee, CESKY TELECOM placed first in 2003, just as it did in2001. CESKY TELECOM ranks among the most prominent firms on the Czech capital marketin terms of capitalization and trading volumes. Its shares are also traded onthe London Stock Exchange in the form of GDRs. CESKY TELECOM's credit rating isthe highest a Czech corporation can receive from top international ratingagencies. About Telefonica Telefonica is Europe's leading integrated telecom company and second biggest inthe world. Its activities are centred mainly on the fixed and mobile telephonybusinesses with broadband as the key tool for the development of both of these. The company is operating in 40 countries and together with CESKY TELECOM has acustomer base that amounts to more than 140 million access. Telefonica has astrong presence in Latin America, where the company concentrates part of itsgrowth strategy. Telefonica is a 100% listed company, with more than 1.5 million directshareholders. Its share capital currently comprises 4,921,130,397 ordinaryshares traded on the Spanish Stock Market (Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao andValencia) and on those in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo, New York, Lima,Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo and the SEAQ International Exchange in London. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange