LandTel enters Swiss telecommunications market

Potsdam, Essen, Zurich (PROTEXT) - LandTel acquires TellianceLandTel, a European telecommunications company, has entered theSwiss market. Rotterdam-headquartered LandTel NV acquiredSwitzerland's Telliance AG on Jan. 28, 2000. Telliance AG inZurich was previously a subsidiary of Germany's RWE-Telliance AG.LandTel NV is the holding company for all LandTel activities inEurope and owns Deutsche LandTel GmbH in Potsdam and LandTelFrance SAS in Paris. In August of last year, Deutsche LandTelGmbH made the headlines when the company was one of the bigwinners of the Wireless Local Loop sollicitation for tenders ofGermany's telecommunications and postal regulatory authorities(RegTP). The company received licenses to operate wireless urbannetworks in many major German cities, including Munich, Cologne,Hannover, Hamburg, Dusseldorf, Leverkusen and Dortmund. DeutscheLandTel plans to put customer-ready network infrastructures intooperation in all of the urban areas by mid-2000. In addition totelephone services, the company will concentrate on Internetservices, according to Berend Koerber, Managing Director BusinessDevelopment Europe of LandTel NV and Managing Director ofDeutsche LandTel GmbH. It was also announced that LandTel FranceSAS has submitted an extensive application for Wireless LocalLoop licenses for a large number of regions in France to theFrench ART regulatory authority on Jan. 31, 2000. Strongexpansion planned in Switzerland With the addition of Zurich-based Telliance AG to its portfolio of European operationalentities, LandTel is pursuing its course of Europe-wideexpansion. The new acquisition will operate as LandTel Schweiz AGand start to put its own IP multi-service network into operationin the middle of the year. An extensive range of IP applicationsand added-value services are planned on the basis of anintegrated language-data platform. In addition, LandTel SchweizAG is also aiming to occupy a major market position in the areaof symmetric digital subscriber lines (SDSL), especially forcorporate customers in Switzerland. RWE-Telliance AG gavepreference to LandTel when it sold off its Swiss subsidiarybecause LandTel seemed to be the most suitable candidate in termsof its ability to implement the company's plans with theexperienced team already in place in Zurich. LandTel's strategyof Europe-wide expansion also played a major role in thisdecision. Berend Koerber was very satisfied with the most recentacquisition, which fits ideally into LandTel's strategy ofEuropean expansion. According to Koerber, "With the entire teamof what was formerly Telliance AG and the teams of DeutscheLandTel in Potsdam and LandTel France in Paris, we can bundle ourexperience and strengths even more effectively. Switzerland willplay a pivotal role in the context of our pan-European strategy."According to information from Koerber, further strategicacquisitions are planned. The goal is to build up a strongposition in the telecommunication markets in all major Europeancountries. John D. Meserve, LandTel's Managing Director forStrategic Affairs and Development explained: "Our goal is to makeLandTel one of the leading brand names in the Europeantelecommunications market. We have managed to enter the German,French and Swiss markets on a large scale, and we are planning toexpand into other countries soon." John D. Meserve joined LandTelrecently. Before he was for 10 years with the Bank of New York asa Senior Vice President. ots Original Text Service: DeutscheLandTel GmbH Internet: http://www.newsaktuell.de For furtherinformation, please contact: Deutsche LandTel GmbH, BerendKoerber, Am Luftschiffhafen 1, D-14471 Potsdam, Phone +49 (0)331/9821-600, Fax +49 (0) 331/9821-606. PR agency:Unternehmensberatung Andreas Dripke GmbH, Phone +49 (0) 611/973-150, Fax +49 (0) 611/719-290, e-mail andreas@dripke.de

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