European Telecoms Market Set for Radical Change, Says Report from Atos Origin and Leading Analyst Firm

Business Wire, May 25, 2005

PARIS -- Within five years, the European telecommunications landscape will have radically changed. The concept of a fixed connection for consumer voice will have eroded and enterprises will be buying hosted telecommunications services. These are the predictions from a report disclosed today from Atos Origin, a leading international IT-services company, and IDC. 'The European Telecom Review' is an in-depth study of the leading European telecoms operators, carried out by IDC.

According to the report, telecommunications operators are engaged in a battle for enterprise value added services and customer attention. The convergence of fixed and mobile infrastructure and telecommunications and information technology is enabling operators to sell bundled services to consumers, including voice, TV, Internet, and mobile services. In addition, operators are forced to move up the value chain, caused by decreasing margins on basic network services.

IDC's latest forecasts show that voice over broadband (VoBB) connections in Europe will grow from 2 million in 2004 to 22 million in 2008. Together with Internet and TV, VoBB will be a key component of bundled services.

Pim Bilderbeek, Vice-President European Telecommunications and Networking Research at IDC says: "CEOs of telecommunications operators are shifting their attention from cutting costs to growing profitable revenues. As a result, new business models are being launched and networking architectures and IT systems are changing rapidly to support new service delivery models."

Giovanni Linari, Board Member and coordinating Global Telecom services at Atos Origin concludes: "Atos Origin works with many of Europe's leading telecoms operators. It is important for us to understand the drivers for market change so we can offer services that meet the specific requirements of telecoms companies over the next few years. We constantly strive to help our telecom operator clients become more profitable and better positioned to capitalize on the market opportunities of tomorrow."

Atos Origin has a proven record of over 20 years of accomplishment and experience in the Telecoms sector and has the capacity, skills, and capability to provide global services. Atos Origin delivers reliable end-to-end solutions and has a customer base covering major telecom operators in Europe. The company's annual revenue in the telecom industry is close to EUR 1 billion .

IDC's research includes interviews with chief information officers and chief technology officers of major European telecommunication organizations including BT, Cable & Wireless, Cegetel SAS, Grupo Auna, France Telecom, KPN, O2, Swisscom Mobile, Telecom Italia, Telefonica SA, Versatel and Vodafone.

About Atos Origin

Atos Origin is an international information technology services company. Its business is turning client vision into results through the application of consulting, systems integration and managed operations. The company's annual revenues are more than EUR 5 billion and it employs over 46,000 people in 40 countries. Atos Origin is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic Games and has a client base of international blue-chip companies across all sectors. Atos Origin is quoted on the Paris Eurolist Market and trades as Atos Origin, AtosEuronext, Atos Worldline and Atos Consulting.