Tiscali Press Release - EVERYONE IN THE LAND CAN AFFORD SUPERFAST BROADBAND

Tiscali the only internet provider to offer Guaranteed QoS - enabling measurable service level guarantees and effective network usage and management for the first time over DSL based networks

Tiscali announces today that it is the first internet provider able to deliver Guaranteed Quality of Service (QoS) over DSL to UK businesses. QoDSL enables technologies such as Voice over IP (VoIP), Teleworking, video-conferencing and virtualised call centres to be cost effectively delivered to smaller customer locations and home offices at a level of quality and reliability previously only available to leased line customers.

The ability to guarantee the quality of service for these applications at a price significantly lower than alternate technologies is key to the rapid customer take up applications such as VoIP.

QoDSL technology makes it possible to prioritise bandwidth for selected business applications, ensuring that the required bandwidth is available for those applications to work without experiencing the time-lags and packet-losses that can be experienced with normal DSL connected services. The technology will provide customers with measurable Service Level Guarantees (SLGs). The impact on the effectiveness of real-time and delay sensitive business solutions such as VoIP means that for the first time voice services offered over low cost DSL connections are guaranteed to be comparable with traditional telephony technology.

The benefits of QoS have been longed recognised but not available until now. Tiscali's entire UK network has now been enabled by technology from Cisco Systems, making the leading provider of broadband services the only ISP in the UK actually able to offer QoS. QoS will be available on Tiscali's Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) business packages and services, enabling all sizes of business from enterprise to SoHo to benefit from the greater bandwidth control and utilisation it offers.

Mary Turner, CEO of Tiscali UK says: "This really is a revolution for how businesses work. Before the availability of QoDSL, only major corporations could afford very costly fixed or leased lines to ensure availability and access to certain office applications such as VoIP. Broadband was mostly used to exchange email, access the internet, perhaps an extranet and possibly to conduct some sort of data backup. With QoS from Tiscali businesses can really use broadband to its full potential for the first time."

The availability of cost effective QoDSL will revolutionise the way many companies operate especially in the areas of traditional home working and virtualised call centres. A myriad of new applications based on video conferencing and video streaming will also be able to fulfil their potential in a number of innovative ways such as online training and queue management in retail stores.

Nathan Francis, General Manager Business Services at Tiscali UK, says: "We are talking about applications that can really enable businesses and deliver significant operational and economic benefits. QoDSL enables many critical applications to be delivered over broadband including business class VoIP, teleconferencing, remote training and development, flexible working, a new dynamic medium for marketing, the opportunities are significant, all within a cost effective and economic model - it makes sense."