NTT Adds 604,000 Optical Access Lines in Q1

NTT reported full year sales of 10.74 trillion yen ($96.8 billion), down 0.6 percent from 10.81 trillion yen a year earlier. Operating income was 1.19 trillion yen, down 1.7% from a year earlier, and net income was 498 billion yen (US$4.5 billion), down 30% from a year earlier.



The company added 604,000 B-FLETS optical access lines in Q1 2006 compared to 13,000 net new DSL subscribers in the quarter. The number of optical access lines now stands at 3.4 million compared to 5.7 million for DSL.



The number of PSTN telephone lines fell during Q1 to 46.9 million, down by 125,400 compared to 3 months earlier.



Some key subscriber trends are shown in the following table.

NTT Subscriber Numbers  March 2006

News Release uhby060512d_01

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NTT DoCoMo Release new FOMA Handsets -- Expanding Features/Services

NTT DoCoMo unveiled eight new FOMA "9 Series" handsets, all of which are preinstalled with "i-appli" software for DoCoMo's "DCMX" credit card. The series includes Japan's first HSDPA-compatible handset, the N902iX HIGH-SPEED, supporting downlinks at up to 3.6 Mbps, or 10 times faster than current FOMA handsets. All models in the 9 Series also have music players. Some other key features include:

• "Data Security Service" -- which enables phonebooks to be stored on the DoCoMo network.



• "Omakase Lock" -- which enables users who lost their phone to telephone a 24-hour call center to have the phone's smart card and personal data locked immediately.



• Biometric Authentication -- which requires confirmation of the owner's fingerprint, facial or voice features prior to accessing most features of the phone.



• "ANSHIN" manager application -- which enables corporate administrators to lock phones and delete/backup phonebooks remotely via computer.



• "Chaku-moji" -- the caller's phone can transmit a 10-character message that displays on the receiver's screen as the phone rings (5 yen per message excluding tax).



• The ability to transfer phone content to external memory



• Chaku-Uta, i-motion, i-appli application data can be stored on a removable miniSD disk, as well as internal memory.



• 3G roaming and compatibility with DoCoMo's WORLD WING service for international roaming via W-CDMA networks in 33 countries/regions.



• Deco-mail Signature -- which enables graphics to be automatically inserted in e-mail signatures and subject lines.



• Compatibility with 1.7GHz bandwidth



• Compatibility with communication congestion control -- DoCoMo will control voice and packet communications separately to ensure that congestion on the packet network will not affect the voice network, and vice-versa (available this summer).



• Remote control of A/V equipment -- the "9 Series" handsets can be used outside the home to program audio/video equipment, such as DVD recorders, for recording TV programs.

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Telefonica Reaches 186.1 million Customer Connections

Revenues of the Telefónica Group over the first three months of the year amounted 12,036.4 million EURs and recorded a year-on-year growth of 45.4%, supported by the general growth in every business lines. This increase it is also affected by the first consolidation of O2 Group as of February 2006 and Cesky Telecom as of July 2005 as well as the appreciation of the Latin American currencies in relation to the EUR. The organic growth of revenues stands at 8.9%.

Some highlights:

• As of the end of March, the Telefónica Group reached 186.1 million customer access services, a year-on-year increase of 42.2%, with cellular and retail Internet broadband accesses being the main contributors to this performance. Of the total number of accesses, 184.2 million correspond to final client accesses and 1.9 million to wholesale accesses.


• Telefónica Group's cellular accesses totaled 131.3 million at 31st March 2006, equivalent to a 61.2% year-on-year increase. The strong commercial activity in the Telefónica Móviles Group's operating markets, with a net gain over the quarter of 4.1 million clients allowed to manage a 98.5 million client base, equivalent to a 21% year-on-year growth. In Telefónica O2 Europe, cellular accesses amounted to 32.8 million, of which 4.7 million belong to Cesky Telecom and 28.1 million to O2 Group.


• The number of retail Internet broadband accesses stood at 6.3 million (+55.4%), constituting one of the main driving forces of the growth of the fixed operators. The figure has exceeded the 3 million mark in Spain, up 46.8% up over the first quarter of 2005, and in Latin America it has reached 2.9 million (+50.2% year-on-year).


• By business lines, the main contributor to Telefonica Group's revenues continued to be Telefónica Móviles Group, which ended the quarter with a growth in revenues of 17.7% versus March 2005 reaching 4,327.3 million EURs, due to the increase in the total number of clients and traffic. Telefónica Latinoamerica Group's revenues in the January-March 2006 period reached 2,318.1 million EURs, a 30.6% year-on-year increase impacted very positively by the exchange rate effect, which contributed with 24.5 percentage points to revenue growth. Telefonica de Espana Group's revenues totaled 2,944.3 million EURs, up 3.3% versus those obtained in the first three months of 2005 pushed by Broadband revenues (+35%).


• Telefónica O2 Europe, constituted by the O2 Group from February to March 2006, Cesky Telecom and Telefonica Deutschland from January to March 2006 contributed with 2,409.2 million EURs of revenues.


• Following the acquisitions made by the Telefónica Group during 2005, consolidated revenues reflected a greater geographic diversification. Spain represents 40.7% and Latin America 36.6%, due to the greater weight of Europe, excluding Spain (21.8%). The UK accounted for 9.5% of total revenues, Germany for 5.1% and the Czech Republic 4.2%. Brazil remained almost stable in terms of its contribution (16.1%) to consolidated revenues.


• Cape for the first quarter of 2006 amounted 1,307.2 million EURs and recorded a strong year-on-year growth (+76.4%) as a result of greater investments in broadband in the fixed telephony business in both Spain and South America and the first consolidation of the O2 Group and Cesky Telecom.

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Extreme Networks' CEO to Retire

Extreme Networks' President and CEO, Gordon Stitt, announced plans to retire during the 2006 calendar year after 10 years in the position. The company has formed a search committee, led by an independent director, to search for and select a new CEO. Mr. Stitt will be active in finding his replacement, and will continue to lead the company until that replacement is found. Upon the appointment of a new CEO, Mr. Stitt will assume the position of Chairman of the Board of Directors.

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Verizon Issues Statement on NSA and Privacy Protection

Verizon Communications issued a statement saying it could not neither confirm nor deny press reports that it supplied extensive calling records of millions of U.S. customers to the National Security Agency (NSA). However, Verizon did say that while it values its customers' privacy, the company will provide customer information to a government agency where authorized by law for appropriately-defined and focused purposes.



Verizon also said that it hopes that the Administration and the Congress can come together and agree on a process in an appropriate setting, and with safeguards for protecting classified information, to examine any issues that have been raised about the program.

http://www.verizon.com

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