05/22/2012

QSC and NetCologne agree to cooperation on open-access platform

Cologne, Germany, May 22, 2012. QSC AG, the provider of comprehensive ICT services, and NetCologne Gesellschaft für Telekommunikation GmbH, have laid down the parameters for their future cooperation on an open-access platform in an agreement. The platform is a network, process, and services hub for providers and users of next-generation access (NGA).

NetCologne has its own state-of-the-art broadband network in the Cologne/Bonn economic area. And this network is constantly being expanded, with 49,000 buildings already having been hooked up by the end of 2011. As it continues to expand its own infrastructures, the company also makes use of partnership models with network operators such as QSC. "There is huge potential here for further market development," according to NetCologne's Managing Director Dr. Hans Konle.

The general agreement between NetCologne and QSC will make the NetCologne network available to a substantially larger circle of customers. In terms of the technology involved, the partnership will be based on QSC's own Next Generation Network (NGN), which allows QSC to link the NetCologne network to networks involving other technologies. QSC will henceforth be able to also offer these connections to its own wholesale partners, ISPs, carriers, and resale partners for marketing purposes.

"We are delighted that NetCologne, which is one of Germany's biggest fiber-optic services company, is willing to join us in further promoting an open-access strategy," enthuses QSC Management Board member Arnold Stender. "Much like with other projects in Leipzig and Hamburg, we see ourselves as a network and service integrator bringing NGA providers and users together more quickly with the aid of fully developed IT, ordering, and connection processes."

NetCologne sees the interest shown by network operators throughout Germany in establishing their own modern infrastructures as confirmation of it hitting the right mark in terms of market demand. "With wholesale agreements like this one with QSC, in the future, customers who source their telecom services from national network operators will likewise be able to benefit from NetCologne's ultra modern network and its excellent services," says NetCologne's Managing Director Konle. "In addition, the more widespread use of the infrastructure will make its expansion profitable more quickly because better use will be made of the network capacities."

About QSC
QSC AG, Cologne, is a service provider for voice and data communication, as well as ICT services. Established in 1997, the company has been focusing on small and mid-size business customers. QSC is the first provider to operate an Open Access platform, which unites a wide range of broadband technologies to offer national and international site networking, including Managed Services. QSC additionally supplies its customers and distribution partners with a comprehensive product portfolio that can be modularly adapted to every need. QSC was the first provider in Germany to build its own Next Generation Network (NGN), and therefore enjoys long years of experience in connection with IP-based telephony solutions, in particular. QSC AG has been listed on the TecDAX index since 2004. The QSC group employs a workforce of some 1,400 people.

About NetCologne
As a regional network operator, NetCologne GmbH is providing the Cologne/Bonn economic region with forward-looking communications technology. The technological basis for this consists of the company's own high-performance fiber optic network. One of the most modern in Europe, it offers capacities for the further dynamic development of the communications factor in this region.

Queries to:
QSC AG
Arne Thull
Head of Investor Relations
Phone: +49 221 6698-724
Fax: +49 221 6698-009
E-mail: invest@qsc.de
Internet: www.qsc.de