Orange Selects Lightbridge's Churn Prophet and Consulting Services; Lightbridge's Customer Intelligence Will Help Orange Maintain UK's Lowest Churn Rate

Business Wire, March 16, 1999

BURLINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 16, 1999--Lightbridge, Inc. (Nasdaq:LTBG), a leading provider of customer acquisition and retention solutions for the global telecommunications industry, today announced that Orange plc, the UK's largest and fastest growing mobile phone network, has selected Churn Prophet(R) and consulting services to meet their retention and customer loyalty plans. Lightbridge's customer intelligence solutions offer the best strategic solutions for helping telecom carriers predict and reduce customer churn, and proactively evaluate market and channel performance.

Orange completed an extensive review to determine the best method for predicting churn. The investment in a churn tool demonstrates Orange's commitment to better understand their customer base and promote customer loyalty. Lightbridge's ability to expand Orange's core competency with an easy-to-use product made it the logical choice.

"The only way to remain competitive is to use tools like Lightbridge's Churn Prophet for finding trends in our customer base," said Karen Mote, customer development and retentions manager at Orange plc. "Lightbridge offers a cost-effective solution that can be used by individuals without a statistical background. Additionally, Lightbridge Consulting Services gave us the resources we need to get to market faster."

Churn Prophet is an analytical tool that uses data mining and predictive modelling technology to identify characteristics of subscribers who have cancelled service in the past. The resulting profile is then used to develop predictions as to which subscribers are likely to cancel services in the future. By using Churn Prophet, Orange will be able to analyze the lifetime value and likelihood of churn for their customers. This knowledge will allow them to focus retention efforts on their most valuable customers.

"While it is impossible to eliminate churn entirely, Lightbridge helps clients transform data into actionable customer intelligence," said Lisa Modisette, managing director of European operations with Lightbridge. "Our expertise in helping carriers like Orange proactively and reactively manage churn will have a strong impact on increasing loyalty and profitability."

Lightbridge Consulting Services completed the proof-of-concept on time and within budget. The test project identified more than 65% of Orange's churn in 20% of its customer base with 96% accuracy. Having finalized an end-to-end audit review, consultants are now helping Orange through the implementation process. Lightbridge Consulting Services is the only global telecommunications practice that delivers full-service consulting for customer intelligence.

Lightbridge's Churn Prophet software runs on a Sun Microsystems platform using information from Orange's customer data warehouse. Churn Prophet marries three innovative technologies: on-line analytical processing (OLAP)/decision support, data mining (automated and predictive modelling) and relational database.

About Lightbridge

Lightbridge, Inc. (Nasdaq:LTBG), based in Burlington, Mass., is a leading provider of software-based services that help global telecommunications carriers quickly acquire customers and retain them over time. Lightbridge has leveraged its credit processing expertise into solutions that help carriers quickly and cost-effectively provide bundled services through new channels. Telesto(tm), Lightbridge's network of integrated customer acquisition and retention solutions, provides best-in-class credit, fraud, churn, channel and market performance solutions to such clients as ALLTEL Communications, AT&T Wireless, BellSouth Mobility DCS, Omnipoint Communications and Sprint PCS. It is the only complete, workflow-enhanced system for customer interaction in the converged telecommunications marketplace. Additional information on the Company can be found on the Web at http://www.lightbridge.com.

About Orange

Orange and wirefree are trademarks of Orange plc group. Orange provides a broad range of personal communications services. As well as Orange GSM 1800 services, this includes other digital cellular telephone and paging services. As per its preliminary results announcement of 25 February 1999, Orange has over 2.39 million customers. Orange provides high quality coverage to 98% of the UK population and 80% of the geographic area. Coverage is based on hand portable, unlike some other carriers, which choose to base their coverage on boosted car kits. Orange is the largest and fastest-growing digital mobile phone network in the UK, with over 5,000 sites (as at 1 February 1999), 6,000 sites targeted by the end of Q1 1999 and 10,000 by 2001. Orange topped the first OFTEL independent survey which measured the network performance of the UK's four mobile phone networks. Orange was the first network operator to introduce Enhanced Full Rate in February 1998. EFR provides fixed line call quality across the entire Orange network to all customers at no extra charge. Orange now offers roaming on 157 networks in 84 countries. Information about Orange can be found on the Orange Web site at www.orange.co.uk.