@Home Benelux Achieves 100,000 Subscriber Landmark With Sigma Systems' Service Management OSS - Operations Support System - Solution

Business Wire, Jan 24, 2002

Business Editors & High Tech Writers

LONDON & TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 24, 2002

High-Speed Internet Service, Direct to the Home Via Cable Modem

Sigma Systems, the cable industry's leading provider of broadband Operations Support System (OSS) solutions, today announced the successful deployment of its service provisioning software with @Home Benelux BV.

@Home Benelux, the Netherlands' second largest high speed Internet service provider, now wholly owned by Essent Kabelcom BV., has successfully used Sigma's OSS software to automate the provisioning of its high speed Internet offering. The company's now 110,000-strong subscriber base can enjoy broadband Internet access at home through their cable TV modems and personal computers.

"Our challenge was to roll out high speed Internet services to our subscribers both quickly and cost-effectively, to respond to the increasing demand for broadband services," comments @Home Benelux Director of Operations, Chris Gray. "Sigma Systems' service management software offered us a core workflow and provisioning engine that allowed us to quickly and easily define and roll out broadband Internet services. We chose Sigma's solution two years ago to launch our service, and our subscriber base reached 100,000 customers before the end of last year. Sigma's software was integral to the success of our network architecture."

"By enabling us to scale-up to meet rapid subscriber growth, while at the same time allowing us to define and add new services, Sigma's software has helped us build our business and meet strategic objectives," said Frans Goettsch, CFO, @Home Benelux.

"Our partnership with @Home Benelux and Essent Kabelcom is of key strategic importance to our launch into Europe and is testament to the increasing demand for residential broadband services delivered via cable," said Sigma Systems' European Managing Director, Richard Hubble. "We've enjoyed considerable success in North America, with Sigma's customer base consisting of 6 of the largest cable operators in the United States and Canada, and we look forward to playing an equally pivotal role in the deployment of interactive and broadband cable services in Europe - bringing our unrivalled experience in North America to the emerging European cable OSS market, which is estimated to be worth in excess of 200 million pound sterling over the next 3-5 years.(1)"

About @Home Benelux B.V.

@Home Benelux is a Dutch private company owned by Essent Kabelcom B.V. of the Netherlands, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Essent N.V. @Home Benelux is pledged to rapidly increase the number of its partners so that as many cable TV subscribers as possible can benefit from its unique service.

About Sigma Systems

Sigma Systems is the global leader in developing and deploying service management solutions for cable system operators. Sigma's OSS (Operations Support System) products enable service providers to automate service management, deliver service with reliability and scalability, improve operating margins, increase customer retention, and enable subscriber growth. The Sigma Service Management Portfolio, the company's flagship product, is a rapidly-deployed solution suite for service provisioning and diagnostics of cable broadband services, including high-speed cable Internet, digital cable video, interactive TV and cable telephony. Sigma's products have been deployed at the largest cable operators and ISPs in the US including AT&T Broadband, Comcast, Cox and Excite@Home. Internationally, Sigma's software serves such major MSOs and ISPs as @Home Benelux (Belgium and the Netherlands), @NetHome (Japan), Cogeco (Canada), Essent Kabelcom (the Netherlands), Rogers (Canada) and Shaw (Canada). Sigma's clients serve a combined total of over 35 million subscribers world-wide. The company is an active participant in CableLabs, the technology consortium for cable system operators in North and South America. Established in 1990, Sigma is headquartered in Toronto, with sales offices in Atlanta, Boston and Denver, and European offices in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Lisbon, London, Madrid, Paris and Rome. Strategic investors in Sigma include: Cisco Systems, Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, and Redwood Ventures.

(1) The Yankee Group