TDE.L Regulatory News (TDE)

12 Oct 2005 09:15

Cesky Telecom A.S.12 October 2005 > PRESS RELEASE - 12. 10. 2005 > BIG BOOST IN INTEREST FOR BROADBAND INTERNET The number of telephone lines connected to broadband services Internet Expres isquickly growing. "As of today, we have 220,000 users of broadband Internet,"says Simon Burckhardt, CESKY TELECOM's Executive Director for marketing. "We arehappy to report that we won another 20,000 new users in the past month alone.This confirms our belief that the Czech population is ready for this type ofInternet connection and positively respond to the market's current offer," Mr.Burckhardt added. The number of locations that offer high-speed Internet isgrowing as well - at present, there are 1,287 locations, which represents morethan 90 % of all telephone lines in the Czech Republic. CESKY TELECOM is satisfied with customers' choice of specific versions of theInternet Expres services. In the past few weeks, more people have been signingup to Internet Expres Ideal rather than to the slower version Internet ExpresImpuls. "Of course, this trend has been boosted by our special offer InternetExpres Ideal, that allows users to use a 512 kb/s connection for the price ofthe 128 kb/s connection for three months. In addition, people have learnt to useInternet for more than just work and now go online for entertainment as well andhave been, therefore, choosing faster connections, " Simon Burckhardt explains. Petr Matejovsky, manager of CESKY TELECOM's ADSL services, says that the growingnumber of customers is driven by their satisfaction with the service offer aswell. "Self-installation packages are very popular and are used by nearly 60% ofall new users. We have also successfully cut the time necessary to installhigh-speed Internet by more than a half for all types of connections over thepast year, which means that it now takes only six days to complete," says PetrMatejovsky. Contact for more information:Vlastimil Srsenpress departmenttel: 800 163 342 (800 1 MEDIA)fax: 271 469 896e-mail: tiskovy.odbor@ct.cz CESKY TELECOM, a. s, is a leading telecommunications company in the CzechRepublic. Through subsidiary Eurotel Praha, spol. s r. o., it is also animportant provider of mobile telecommunication services. For more information onthe company and its service offer visit www.telecom.cz, a web site selected asthe BestWeb 2003 in the WebTop100 poll. CESKY TELECOM puts great emphasis on the use of the growth potential of data andInternet services. According to a research carried out by the GfK agency, ITmanagers consider CESKY TELECOM the best provider of data services in the CzechRepublic. The company also wants to become the leader of complex e-commerceservices. CESKY TELECOM regularly places at the top of the Signum Temporis chart ofcompanies with the most open information policies in the Czech capital market.In 2003 and 2001, voters from among the professional public, mediarepresentatives and nine members of the Signum Temporis board selected CESKYTELECOM as the contest's absolute winner. CESKY TELECOM, a. s., is one of the most important companies in the Czechcapital market in terms of market capitalisation and transaction volume. Thecompany's GDR shares are traded at the London Stock Exchange as well. CESKYTELECOM's rating has been among the best scores awarded to Czech companies fromrenowned international rating agencies. Telefonica Telefonica is Europe's leading integrated telecommunications provider and thesecond biggest provider in the world. Its business activities focus primarily onlandlines and mobile telephony. The company uses broadband Internet connectionas a key tool for the development of both technologies. The company is present in 40 countries of the world and, including CESKYTELECOM, it has over 140 million clients. Telefonica has a substantial share oftelecommunication markets in Latin America where it concentrates a considerableportion of its growth strategies. All Telefonica shares are traded at stock exchanges and it has more than 1.5million direct shareholders. Its issued stock capital includes 4,921,130,397regular shares traded at the Spanish stock exchange (Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbaoand Valencia) and at stock exchanges in London, Paris, Frankfurt, Tokyo, NewYork, Lima, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo and SEAQ International Exchange inLondon. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange