Equant Positioned in Leaders Quadrant for Asia/Pacific Network Service Providers; Based on ''Ability to Execute'' and ''Completeness of Vision''

Business Wire, April 4, 2006

PARIS & SINGAPORE -- Equant has been placed in the leaders quadrant in Gartner Inc.'s Magic Quadrant for Asia/Pacific Network Service Providers, 2005(1).

According to the report, Gartner's evaluation measures the progress of individual players versus the achievements of other players, based on the needs of the market, including what's required by enterprises in the future. A provider that achieves less than its competitors in today's highly competitive market would decline in its market position.

The report defines Leaders as vendors who "demonstrate strong vision, especially in terms of defining future market needs. They back their vision by investing ahead of competitors, very often in new or unproven areas, and are generally well-positioned for the future. Significant differences exist between the lead players in terms of strategy and execution, and none excel in all areas."

David Nishball, senior vice president, Equant Sales & Marketing, Asia Pacific, said: "We are delighted to be positioned in Gartner's Magic Quadrant. We believe this is recognition of our sound business strategy and worldwide customer focused approach. Over the last few years, we have invested heavily to improve our business offerings to successfully meet growing market demands, particularly in China and India, which represent a huge growth opportunity."

"We will continue to build on our improved business offerings and our lead on geographic coverage to further consolidate our market-leading status in this vibrant and increasingly sophisticated market," Nishball concluded.

"Network managers need to pay particular attention to Ability to Execute when selecting a network service provider. The Asia/Pacific region, with its large and fragmented geography, presents more challenges than other regions when it comes to delivering pan-regional network services," wrote Gartner's Research Director, To Chee Eng, in the report.

Equant was evaluated on its "ability to execute" and "completeness of vision," which reflect the following specific criteria:

--Ability to Execute: Product/Service, Overall Viability, Sales Execution/Pricing, Market Responsiveness and Track Record, Marketing Execution, Customer Experience and Operations.

--Completeness of Vision: Market Understanding, Marketing Strategy, Sales Strategy, Offering (Product) Strategy, Business Model, Vertical/Industry Strategy, Innovation and Geographic Strategy.

About Equant

Equant is a recognized industry leader in global communications services for multinational businesses. Equant combines its network expertise with its expanded services capabilities to provide global, integrated and customized communication services to enable its customers' key business processes. Equant serves thousands of the world's top companies, with the industry's most extensive portfolio of communications services and network solutions, including the market-leading IP VPN used by more than 1,400 global businesses. Equant, a subsidiary of France Telecom, consistently leads industry surveys in corporate user satisfaction.

The Magic Quadrant is copyrighted Jan. 16, 2006 by Gartner Inc. and is reused with permission, which permission should not be deemed to be an endorsement of any company or product depicted in the quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is Gartner Inc.'s opinion and is an analytical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It measures vendors against Gartner defined criteria for a marketplace. The positioning of vendors within a Magic Quadrant is based on the complex interplay of many factors. Gartner does not advise enterprises to select only those firms in the "Leaders" quadrant. In some situations, firms in the Visionary, Challenger, or Niche Player quadrants may be the right matches for an enterprise's requirements. Well-informed vendor selection decisions should rely on more than a Magic Quadrant. Gartner research is intended to be one of many information sources including other published information and direct analyst interaction. Gartner Inc. expressly disclaims all warranties, express or implied, of fitness of this research for a particular purpose.

(1) Magic Quadrant for Asia/Pacific Network Service Providers, 2006 by To Chee Eng written on 16 Jan 2006.