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Date: 4th December 2007
Title: PacketFront makes FTTH breakthrough in Germany 


PacketFront, the pioneer of open-access broadband networking, has signed an agreement with Stadtwerke Schwerte, an energy and communications company, to build a fiber-based network for the city of Schwerte in Germany. PacketFront's technology means that Stadtwerke Schwerte is now able to operate a fully automated Fiber-To-The-Home (FTTH) network.

"We are delighted that Stadtwerke Schwerte has chosen us as their supplier, and it is a strategically very important deal for us," said Martin Thunman, CEO of PacketFront. "This is our first contract in Germany, and it opens up a very large market."

Stadtwerke Schwerte chose PacketFront because of the company's award winning BECS control and provisioning system, and the high quality and advanced support for VoIP in its customer premises equipment, DRGs. PacketFront will also supply the ASR 5000 Series of Advanced Services Routers and the Service Selection Portal, SSP. Triple-play services (IP-telephony, internet and IPTV) will be available from the start, and Stadwerke Schwerte is also considering opening up the network to external service providers.

PacketFront's fully automated solution means that the network is extremely cost-efficient to manage. The solution also provides self-provisioning capabilities, which give end users the option to choose among several services for themselves without having to wait for a third party to make the changes.

"The advanced technology and PacketFront's expertise made it a simple choice," said Thomas Griem, Project Manager for FTTH and Cable TV at Stadtwerke Schwerte. "Their support throughout the test phase and their ability to deploy the network quickly and efficiently has been highly impressive. The high level of automation together with the flexibility to change business model over time makes this solution both cost effective and future proof."

The first area to be covered by the network is the region of Westhofen, where approximately 1,600 households will be connected. Within the next five years, Stadtwerke Schwerte will connect all 50,000 residents in the city of Schwerte, which corresponds to 28,000 households. Schwerte is situated just outside of Dortmund in Germany.

About Stadtwerke Schwerte
Stadtwerke Schwerte GmbH is an energy and communications company. It provides electricity, natural gas, water, Internet, cable-TV and telephony. The company has 74 employees (2005).

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