System Integrator, Essentia S.p.A., and General Bandwidth Form Distribution Agreement for VoIP European Market Penetration; Reseller Agreement Part of Essentia S.p.A.'s Long-Term Customer Support Strategy

Business Wire, June 22, 2005

AUSTIN, Texas -- General Bandwidth, a leading Voice over IP equipment manufacturer enabling rapid deployment and new service revenue generation over broadband networks, and Essentia S.p.A., an Italy-based System Integrator & Solution Distributor, have entered into a distribution agreement for Essentia S.p.A. to sell General Bandwidth's G6(R) Universal Media Gateway Platform and offer system integration services to the Italian market and nearby countries, like Switzerland, Slovenia, Croatia, Albania and vicinities.

Essentia S.p.A. takes care of the full turn-key supply, deploying and managing of the projects, performing network integration services and providing full support for customers, local telecommunications providers and systems integrators spanning beyond the Italian market into other parts of Europe.

Mr. Andrea Tarasconi, CEO of Essentia S.p.A., said, "We selected the General Bandwidth G6 platform because it provides a compact, flexible, scalable and reliable carrier class voice-gateway/media-gateway solution absolutely outstanding and well fitted for all the major future-expected broadband Wireless & Wireline regional projects."

"We are very happy with the collaboration that has taken place between us and Essentia to deliver the highest quality voice services to Essentia's integrated broadband customers," says Charles Vogt, President and CEO of General Bandwidth. "Essentia's vision to ensure a seamless migration toward packet voice services across its expanding broadband network is directly in line with ours and makes sense for the market."

"The scalability of the General Bandwidth G6 solution is so good that it can well be utilized by our customers, even in large Enterprise projects for PABXs consolidation and Corporate Centrex solutions in general," said Mr. Ferdinando Sabatino, Sales Director Enterprise Market of Essentia S.p.A.

About Essentia S.p.A.

Essentia S.p.A. is a leading provider of turn-key professional solutions of telecommunication networks, ICT security solutions and video surveillance solutions, for the regional and metropolitan telecommunications carriers and for the large enterprise in Italy and in the nearby nations.

In order to perfectly match the needs of the customers, Essentia has two separated Business Units, the System Integration BU for the Telco/Carrier Market and the Solution Distribution BU for the quite different Enterprise Market.

Essentia S.p.A. is a subsidiary of "Gruppo Essentia Telecomunicazioni" and itself directly controls Nexit S.r.l., specialized in satellite network solution and in the design and delivery of SMATV-IP networks in MAN, districts and building environments.

Thanks to the company-owned patent called Advasu(R), Essentia S.p.A. offers a unique and advanced family of outdoor Wireless-LANs especially geared for the Wi-Fi Hot-Spot markets. Through the exclusive know-how and the highly skilled team of its technical staff, Essentia is able to offer its customers the most innovative solutions available on the market.

About General Bandwidth

General Bandwidth is a leading provider of Voice over IP infrastructure solutions spanning more than 40 service providers worldwide. General Bandwidth delivers broadband solutions addressing a full range of applications, including residential and business access, trunking and enhanced VoIP solutions. With nine patents issued and nine pending, General Bandwidth's flagship G6 Universal Media Gateway and network management system are OSMINE, RUS, PacketCable(TM), and NEBS-3 certified, produced in a TL9000 quality system, and deployed in MSOs, ILECs, CLECs, and RLECs networks worldwide. General Bandwidth was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Austin, Texas. Additional information on General Bandwidth is available at www.genband.com.