iBasis, Inc., IBAS, the leader in advanced Internet-based voice communications, today announced that Argentina's largest carrier, Telecom Argentina, has interconnected with The iBasis Network to expand its international service. With this interconnection, Telecom Argentina is able to route its international voice and fax traffic over iBasis' VoIP infrastructure, and iBasis is able to expand the volume of traffic it carries to and from Argentina, South America's second-largest market. Telecom Argentina is the largest carrier in Argentina and offers a wide range of telecommunications services, including local, domestic, and international long-distance telephone services, the supply of fixed telecommunications links, data transmission and value added services. "Our relationship with Telecom Argentina, one of Latin America's largest and most respected Tier 1 carriers, builds on our continuing success in attracting the world's largest carriers to our network," said Ofer Gneezy, president and CEO of iBasis. "In addition, this interconnection gives our network unmatched reach into one of the largest telecommunications markets in Latin America, enabling large carriers from major global markets in North America, Europe, and Asia, to more efficiently and reliably route voice traffic to this important commercial destination. Our continuing growth in Latin America has been a strong contributor to the growth and traffic we have seen over the past few weeks."

"In South America, iBasis has quickly emerged as a leader in VoIP, reliably carrying millions of Tier 1 international minutes every day over their global network," said Maximo Lema, Telecom's International Business Director. "Connecting to The iBasis Network enables us to reduce the operational and transport costs of providing Tier 1 international service - which offers great strategic advantage as we seek to expand our business in South America."

iBasis in Latin America

Many of the world's largest carriers route international voice traffic over the iBasis Network, which has more than 589 points of presence in more than 80 countries, using its efficient global footprint to provide high quality international service. In Latin America, iBasis has relationships with more than 35 carriers and carries large volumes of voice traffic between the US and Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and Peru. Through its extensive carrier relationships, iBasis has been able to grow its Latin American traffic by more than 123% and revenues by nearly 142% from Q3 2000 to Q3 2001. During that same period, iBasis realized 136% traffic growth and 97% revenue growth for its international voice service between the U.S. and Argentina and traffic growth of 164% and revenue growth of 107% for its service between the U.S. and Mexico. With this growth, iBasis estimates that it now carries more than 15% of all voice traffic from the U.S. to Argentina.(1)

iBasis and the Move to VoIP

iBasis handles millions of minutes of traditional carriers' ordinary international voice traffic every day on its global VoIP network. Outsourcing international traffic to iBasis offers service providers a powerful competitive advantage by lowering the cost of transport and reducing overall global infrastructure requirements. According to industry analyst firm Probe Research, VoIP transport is expected to account for approximately 9% of all international voice traffic in 2001, up from approximately 3% in 2000. As international voice traffic continues to grow, decreasing sales of traditional circuit-switching equipment and a predicted tripling of VoIP gateway equipment sales(2) over the next five years offers further evidence that the fundamental shift to VoIP is well underway.


(1) Based on a comparison of iBasis 1H 2001 traffic with global voice traffic statistics in industry analyst publication TeleGeography 2002.

(2) According to Wintergreen Research "IP vs. Circuit Switching" August, 2001; and IDC "Standalone VoIP Gateways: Market Analysis" August 2000.