News Release

Communications Industry Researchers, Inc.
PO Box 5387
Charlottesville, VA 22905
Tel: (804) 984-0245 Fax: (804) 984-0247 Web Site: http://www.cir-inc.com/

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Lawrence Gasman
April 23, 1997 (804) 984 0245 x. 11
ldg@cir-inc.com

ISDN Market Outside of North America to Grow 15 Fold in Next Decade Says New Report

Charlottesville, VA ÷ The market for ISDN services outside of North America will grow from around $2.1 billion today to a whopping $29.8 billion in the year 2007 ÷ an almost 15 fold increase. (See attached chart.) This is according to a new 317-page report from Communications Industry Researchers, Inc., (CIR), a market research company based here. The report, Narrowband International: Worldwide Opportunities At 2 Mbps And Under is particularly optimistic about the future of frame relay and the international opportunities that it presents for North American equipment vendors.

According to the new CIR report, despite the emergence of high-speed technologies ranging from xDSL to ATM, ISDN will provide sufficient bandwidth for most real world applications. "In addition, as a circuit-switched technology, ISDN will fit well into the existing public network infrastructure in many countries," says Lawrence D. Gasman, president of CIR. According to Gasman, ISDN is expected to emerge as a workhorse technology for Internet access, LAN internetworking, telecommuting and remote access and will provide sufficient bandwidth for many years to come in most countries.

According to Narrowband International,the international ISDN market is wide open to U.S. and Canadian equipment vendors, although they will also face powerful competition from a handful of European and Japanese suppliers. And while new technologies, such as frame relay, are taking a bite out of the international market for narrowband services, ISDN is providing strong competition. Large companies are purchasing PRI despite the high installation fees and monthly charges. In South Korea, Dacom and Korea Telecom are heavily promoting ISDN for multimedia and Internet usage. Even the Russians are beginning to aggressively deploy ISDN ÷ several major Russian cities came on line in 1996 and more will be served by ISDN during 1997, when the international ISDN services to Russia will also be enhanced.

Narrowband International discusses the markets for ISDN, frame relay, X.25 and other narrowband equipment and services in the major countries of Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe (including Russia) and the Pacific Rim. The table of contents and executive summary of Narrowband International is available at CIR's Web site. The report is priced at $3,500 in hard copy and is also available in HTML and PDF formats. The report was written by Judith Hellerstein, who specializes in regulatory, industry and market analysis of telecommunicatios and technology. Further details of this study can be obtained from Robert Nolan at 617-484-2077 , or from the author herself at 202-333-6517 .

Communications Industry Researchers, Inc. has been in business since 1979. The company publishes market studies and newsletters, and carries out demanding custom market research assignments on the commercial aspects of new communications technologies.